EXPERIMENT 5: Antigen Detection using Enzyme-Linked
(A) Structure of IgG bound to the HIV capsid
Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA)
I. INTRODUCTION
Immunology is the study of the immune system
and how the body protects itself against various diseases.
Over 100 years ago, biologists and biochemists found
that animals’ internal immune systems respond to
invasion by “foreign entities” or antigens. When an
invader enters the body, it provokes an immune response
that begins with the production of proteins called
antibodies. Like magic bullets, antibodies seek out and
attach themselves to invading entities (antigens), flagging
the invaders for destruction by other immune system-
associated cells. The antigenic invaders may be any
molecules foreign to the body, including components of
infectious agents like bacteria, fungi, or viruses. Recently,
antibodies have become one of the most important tools
used in molecular biology and biotechnology research to
diagnose, analyze, and treat diseases. The number of
different antibodies circulating in the blood has been
estimated to be between 106-1011, so there is usually an
antibody ready to deal with any antigen. In fact,
antibodies make up to 15% of your total blood serum
protein. Antibodies have high specificity too, that is, each
antibody recognizes only a single antigen type.
Figure 5.1.
protein p24 as determined by X-ray crystallography
(Harris et al., 1998; Momany et al., 1996). (B) A
commonly used representation of an antibody bound to
an antigen
How are antibodies made? When exposed to
antigens, all mammals generate an immune response
and produce these proteins called antibodies. These
antibodies then recognize and bind tightly to the specific
antigens. Animals such as goats, rabbits, and mice can
be injected with an antigen and, after a period of time,
their serum will contain antibodies that specifically
recognize that antigen. If the antigen was a disease-
causing agent, the antibodies can be used to develop
diagnostic tests for the disease. In an immunoassay, the
antibodies used to recognize antigens like disease agents
are called primary antibodies. Secondary antibodies
recognize and bind to primary antibodies in an
immunoassay. They are prepared by injecting antibodies
produced by one species of animal into another species.
This works because the antibodies produced by different
species are different enough from each other that they
will provoke an immune response. For example, if you
want a secondary antibody that will recognize a human
primary antibody, inject human antibodies into an animal
like a rabbit. After the rabbit immune response, that rabbit
serum will contain antibodies that recognize and bind to
human antibodies. Secondary antibodies are frequently
labelled to make them visible.
To detect antigens, the technique enzyme-linked
immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is used. The ELISA relies
on antibodies to detect the presence of antigens in liquid
samples. Because they are antibody- based, ELISAs are
called immunoassays. ELISAs can detect minute
amounts of disease agents in samples such as body
fluids (before the body has had a chance to mount an
immune response). Various types of ELISA are shown on
Figure 5.2.
Figure 5.2. Various types of ELISA commonly used in
molecular biology. (A) Antigen is attached to a
polystyrene plate. Enzyme-labelled antibody is added
which can react with the antigen and a substrate that can
be measured. (B) Antigen is attached to a polystyrene
plate. Addition of primary antibody is followed by an
enzyme-labelled antibody that can react with both the
primary antibody and substrate. (C) A capture antibody is
attached to the polystyrene plate. Antigen is then added
that specifically attaches or captures the antigen. A
second antibody, also specific for the antigen but not the
same as the capture antibody, “sandwiches” the antigen.
This second antibody is then followed by an enzyme-
labelled antibody specific for the second antibody that can
react with a substrate that can be measured. (D) Similar
to sandwich ELISA, this technique involves the addition of
competing antibodies when the second antibody is
added. This results in a decrease in the substrate signal
that is generated.
Figure 5.3. Production of antibodies in HIV-infected
individuals, highlighting p24 as the viral capsid protein of
interest in ELISA-based assays.
The main steps in this antigen detection ELISA are:
1. Add your sample and control samples to the
wells in a microplate strip. Your samples contain
many proteins and may or may not contain the
antigen. Incubate for 5 minutes to allow all the
proteins in the samples to bind to the plastic wells
via hydrophobic interaction. This is called an
immunosorbent assay because proteins adsorb
(bind) to the plastic wells.
2. Add primary antibody to the wells and incubate.
The antibodies will seek out the antigen from the
many proteins bound to the well. If your sample
contains the antigen, the antibodies will bind it
tightly and remain in the well.
3. Detect the bound antibodies with HRP-labeled
secondary antibody. If the primary antibodies
have bound to the antigen, the secondary
antibodies will bind tightly to the primary
antibodies.
4. Add enzyme substrate to the wells, wait for 5
minutes, and evaluate the assay results. If the
antigen was present in your sample, the wells will
turn blue. This is a positive diagnosis, If the wells
remain colorless the antigen was not present in
your sample and the diagnosis is negative.
In this experiment, you will be detecting human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV) capsid protein p24 antigen
using ELISA. HIV p24 is a structural protein that makes
up most of the HIV viral core or capsid. High levels of p24
are normally present in the blood serum of newly infected
individuals during the short period between infection and
seroconversion, making p24 antigen-based assays useful
in diagnosing primary HIV infection. Antibodies specific
for p24 are usually produced during the seroconversion
period, rendering p24 antigen undetectable in some
cases for most individuals. Medically, p24 antigen assays
are not reliable for diagnosing HIV infection after its very
earliest stages. However, early reliable diagnosis of HIV
infection can be performed with more sophisticated
techniques such as polymerase chain reaction.
II. OBJECTIVES OF THE EXPERIMENT
After the experiment, the student must be able to:
1. Discuss the basic biochemical and immunologic
principles of antibody production;
2. Discuss the principles of enzyme-linked
immunosorbent assay (ELISA);
3. Perform ELISA for the HIV p24 antigen detection
in samples; and
4. Appreciate the use of ELISA in disease molecular
biology and medical biotechnology.
III. MATERIALS AND REAGENTS
A. The students will borrow/bring the following:
 Paper towels (large stack, 2)
 Black marking pen (2)
  12-well or 96-well microplate strips/plates c. Use a fresh pipet tip for each sample and
 50-μL fixed-volume micropipet or 20-200 μL transfer 50 μL of each of your team’s
adjustable micropipet samples into the appropriately initialed three
 disposable plastic transfer pipets wells.
 Yellow tips (1 box)
B. The instructors will provide the following:
 Yellow tubes (4 different samples/workstation
derived from patient’s blood, 1X antigen or 1X
PBS, 0.25 mL)
 Violet tubes (labelled +, positive control
containing 1X heat-inactivated viral p24 protein
antigen, 0.5 mL)
 Blue tube (labelled ―, negative control 4. Wait for 5 minutes while all the proteins in the
containing HIV-negative human serum, 0.5 mL) samples bind to the plastic wells.
 Green tube (labelled PA, 1X primary antibody, 5. Wash the unbound sample out of the wells:
Anti-p24 capsid protein antibody from mouse, 1.5 a. Tip the microplate strip upside down onto the
mL) paper towels so that the samples drain out,
then gently tap the strip a few times upside
 Orange tube (labelled SA, 1X secondary
down on the paper towels. Make sure to
antibody, Anti-mouse immunoglobulin antibody
avoid splashing sample back into wells.
conjugated to horseradish peroxidase or HRP,
1.5 mL)
 Brown tube (labelled SUB, enzyme substrate, 1.5
mL) 70-80 mL wash buffer (PBS, with 0.05%
Tween 20)
C. Equipment
 None
IV. METHODOLOGY (Adapted from Biotechnology
ExplorerTM, ELISA Immuno ExplorerTM Kit © BIO-RAD)
1. Label the yellow tubes with each student’s
initials.
b. Discard the top paper towel.
2. Label the outside wall of each well of your 12-well
c. Use a transfer pipet filled with wash buffer
or 96-well strip/plate. Two students may share a
from the beaker to fill each well with wash
strip of 12 wells. On each strip, label the first
buffer taking care not to spill over into
three wells with a “+” for the positive controls and
neighboring wells. The same transfer pipet
the next three wells with a “―” for the negative
will be used for all washing steps.
controls. On the remaining wells, write your and
your lab partner’s initials. For example, Florence
Nightingale and Alexander Fleming would label
their shared strip like this:

3. Bind the antigen to the wells:

a. Use a pipet to transfer 50 μL of the positive
control (+) from the violet tube into the three
“+” wells.
b. Use a fresh pipet tip to transfer 50 μL of the
negative control (―) from the blue tube into
the three “―” wells.
d. Tip the microplate strip upside down onto the
paper towels so that the wash buffer drains
out, then gently tap the strip a few times
upside down on the paper towels.
e. Discard the top 2-3 paper towels.
6. Repeat wash step 5.
7. Use a fresh pipet tip to transfer 50 μL of primary
antibody (PA) from the green tube into all 12
wells of the microplate strip.
8. Wait for 5 minutes for the primary antibody to
bind.
9. Wash the unbound primary antibody out of the
wells by repeating wash step 5 two times.
10. Use a fresh pipet tip to transfer 50 μL of
secondary antibody (SA) from the orange tube
into all 12 wells of the microplate strip.
11. Wait for 5 minutes for the secondary antibody to
bind.
12. Wash the unbound secondary antibody out of the
wells by repeating wash step 4 three times.
13. Use a fresh pipet tip to transfer 50 μL of enzyme
substrate (SUB) from the brown tube into all 12
wells of the microplate strip.
14. Wait for 5 minutes. Observe and record your
results. Make sure to label “+” if the well turned
blue and a “―” if there is not color change.
VIDEO LECTURES
The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)
The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay or
ELISA. For this experiment you will need:
1. microtiter plate
2. phosphate buffered saline
3. antibody and antigen samples
4. color changing substrate solution
5. 37-degree incubator
6. adjustable micropipette and tips
7. transfer pipettes
Step 1: Label the microtiter plate and transfer pipettes as
noted in the product literature.
Step 2: Add 100 microliters of the antigen solution to all
of the wells.
Step 3: Incubate for five minutes at room temperature. At
this time, the antigens will nonspecifically adhere to the
plastic through hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions.
Step 4: Remove all the liquid from the wells using a
transfer pipette.
Step 5: Wash the wells by adding approximately 8 drops
of PBS buffer to each well. Remove all the PBS from
each of the wells taking care to prevent the buffer from
spilling over into adjacent wells. Traditionally following
this step, the wells are blocked with a protein containing
buffer to prevent nonspecific interactions between the
antibody and the plastic wells. We have optimized this
experiment to eliminate this step.
Step 6: Add reagents as outlined in the product literature.
Remember to use a clean micropipette tip for each
reagent.
Step 7: Incubate the plate for 15 minutes at 37 degrees
Celsius.
Step 8: Remove the liquid from the wells using the
appropriately labeled transfer pipette.
Step 9: Watch each well with fresh PBS. Remove the
liquid using the transfer pipette designated for each
sample.
Step 10: At 100 microliters of the secondary antibody to
each of the wells.
Step 11: Incubate for 15 minutes at 37 degrees Celsius.
Step 12: While the samples are incubating, prepare the
detection substrate as specified in the product literature.
Step 13: Remove the secondary antibody solution from
the wells using the transfer pipette designated for each
sample. Wash each world once with fresh PBS buffer.
Remove the liquid using the transfer pipette designated
for each sample.
Step 14: Add 100 microliters of the substrate solution to
each well.
Step 15: Incubate at 37 degrees Celsius for five minutes.
Step 16: Examine your results. Differences between
negative and positive samples will be obvious with most
positive samples turning brown in color. If color is not fully
developed after 5 minutes, incubate at 37 degrees
Celsius for a longer period of time.
ANTIGEN DETECTION USING ENZYME-LINKED
Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) to
IMMUNOSORBENT ASSAY (ELISA)
Measure Specific Serum Antibodies
The Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
(POST LAB HANDOUT)
(ELISA) is a commonly used format for serologic testing.
The purpose of this animation is to explain how this test BASICS OF IMMUNOLOGY
works. ELIZA serologies are usually done in multi-well
microtiter plates so that dilutions of serum can be easily ●  Branch of medicine and biology concerned with
prepared and tested. To better understand how this assay immunity and the biochemical aspects of the
is done let's take a closer look at what happens in one of immune system
the wells of this assay plate. To perform the assay, the
wells of the plate are coated with the antigen of interest. ●  Deals with physiological functioning of the immune
For commercial tests, this would be done by the system in states of both health and disease as well
as malfunctions of the immune system in
manufacturer of the assay. To begin testing, the wells are immunological disorders like allergies, immune
filled with dilutions of the patient’s serum. If antibodies deficiencies, and autoimmune disorders
against the antigen are present they will bind to the
antigen fixed to the bottom of the wells. But only antigen ●  Molecular biology principles are incorporated
specific antibodies will bind to the wells. The wells are
then washed out to remove all unbound antibodies. Next,
a solution of an animal antibody against human
antibodies is added. This second antibody is covalently
conjugated to an enzyme. The wells are washed again,
this time to remove any unbound enzyme conjugated
antibody. Finally, a solution of a colorogenic enzyme
substrate is added. The interaction of the substrate with
the enzyme on the second antibody generates visible
color. The development of color in the wells with a
specific antibody can be seen with the naked eye or
quantified with an electronic plate reader. The reaction is
less intense as the serum is diluted and the amount of
antibody captured in the wells decreases. The titer is the
highest dilution with definite color development.
 ANTIBODIES

 IgA, IgD, IgE, IgG, and IgM

 Have various biological properties
 Upon activation, B cells produce these
antibodies, each of which recognizing a unique
antigen, and neutralizing specific pathogens
 Glycoproteins belonging to the immunoglobulin
superfamily (free in the blood, bound to B cells)

FOCUS: ADAPTIVE IMMUNITY

●  Recognition of specific “non-self” antigens in the

presence of “self” antigens

●  Generation of pathogen-specific immunologic

effector pathways that eliminate specific pathogens
or pathogen-infected cells

●  Development of an immunologic memory that can

quickly eliminate a specific pathogen should
subsequent infection occur

ANTIGEN-ANTIBODY COMPLEX

HUMORAL IMMUNITY

B CELLS

●  Involved in the creation of antibodies that circulate

in blood plasma and lymph, known as humoral
immunity

●  Antibodies are large Y-shaped proteins used by

the immune system to identify and neutralize foreign
objects
HOW TO DETECT PRESENCE OF ANTIGEN OR
ANTIBODIES IN VITRO IN THE LAB?

ENZYME-LABELLED ASSAYS VARIOUS TYPES OF ELISA: DETAILS

● Enzymes are currently the most widely used and

investigated labels for immunoassays, because a single
enzyme label can provide multiple copies of detectable
species

● Enzyme immunoassays label either ligands or

antibodies with enzyme, and enzyme activity in bound or
free fractions is measured

ENZYME-LINKED IMMUNOSORBENT ASSAY (ELISA)

● Antibodies can be used as exquisitely specific analytic

reagents to detect or quantify the amount of a protein or
other antigen

●  This method makes use of an enzyme that reacts

with a colorless substrate to produce a colored
product.

●  The enzyme is covalently linked to a specific

antibody that recognizes a specific antigen

ENZYME-LINKED IMMUNOSORBENT ASSAY (ELISA)

●  If the antigen is present, the antibody-antigen

complex will bind to the enzyme, and on the addition
of the substrate the enzyme will catalyze the
reaction generating the colored product

●  Presence of colored product indicates the HUMAN IMMUNODEFICIENCY VIRUS (HIV)

presence of the antigen
●  Lentivirus (a subgroup of retrovirus)
●  Can detect less than a nanogram of a protein
●  Sexually-transmitted infection
●  Using polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies
●  A virus that attacks the immune system

●  Reduces the CD4 cells in the human body

●  Can progress to AIDS

HIV p24 Antigen

OBJECTIVES OF THE EXPERIMENT

1. Discuss the basic biochemical and immunologic

principles of antibody production;
2. Discuss the principles of enzyme-linked
immunosorbent assay (ELISA);

3. Perform ELISA for the HIV p24 antigen detection in

blood samples; and
4. Appreciate the use of ELISA in disease molecular
biology and medical biotechnology.

METHODOLOGY
 REASONS

STEP REASON
Wells were rinsed with To block the unoccupied
wash buffer using PBS protein binding sites in the
containing Tween 20 wells
Incubation periods
during the entire ELISA To allow efficient binding
process
Enzyme required for qualitative
Horseradish peroxidase
detection (through color
(HRP) label on the
development upon substrate
secondary antibody
interaction)

DETECTING p24 HIV CAPSID PROTEIN ANTIGEN

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION QUALITATIVE RESULT

INDIRECT ELISA
  Enzyme conjugate defective or inhibited by certain
contaminants

 Microtiter well plates were poorly coated

TROUBLESHOOTING ELISA

If color has developed for the test samples but NOT for
the positive controls:

 Check the source of positive controls (expiry date,

etc)
 If the color can be seen (after troubleshooting), but
the absorbance is not high (visually) as expected, check
the wavelength
TERMS TO CONSIDER DURING ELISA  Repeat the procedure if positive controls are defective

PRECAUTIONS
Solid phase Stopping

 Pipette tip use

Adsorption Chromogen
 Proper microtiter plate washing
 Reagent use
Washing Enzyme conjugate  During incubation periods, plates should be covered
using the plate cover
Antigen Antibody
ADVANTAGES OF ELISA
TROUBLESHOOTING ELISA
  ELISA tests are accurate (due to antigen-
If the negative controls are giving positive results: antibody binding)

 Contamination of the substrate solution, enzyme-   Highly sensitive and specific

labelled antibody, or the control themselves
  Antigens of very low or unknown concentrations
 Inadequate rinsing of plates can be detected (for sandwich ELISA)

 Inadequate blocking of plates   Generally safe (do not require radioactive

substances)
TROUBLESHOOTING ELISA
  Used in a wide variety of tests
If no color has developed for the positive controls or for
the samples: DISADVANTAGES OF ELISA

 Check all reagents for dating and storage conditions   Monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies
 Microtiter well plates not coated properly
 Reagents applied in the wrong order or has omitted   Expensive reagents/kits
steps  Enzyme conjugate defective or inhibited by
contamination
  False positive and false negative errors
TROUBLESHOOTING ELISA
  Enzymes and/or substrates are short term so
microtiter plate wells must be read as soon as the
If very little color has developed for the positive controls experiment is done
and test samples:
  Enzyme activity may be affected by plasma
 Check the dilution of the enzyme-labelled antibody constituents
 Concentration of substrate must be optimized
 Wash buffer not adequately drained after every wash
APPLICATIONS OF ELISA
step
 Inadequate incubation times
 Serum antibody concentration determinations
 Detecting potential food allergens
 Disease outbreaks (tracking spread of a disease)
 Antigen detection(e.g .pregnancy hormones)

SAMPLE PROBLEMS