Quality Issues of Research Antibodies

Abstract

According to several recent studies, an unexpectedly high number of landmark papers seem to be not reproducible by independent laboratories. Nontherapeutic antibodies used for research, diagnostic, food analytical, environmental, and other purposes play a significant role in this matter. Although some papers have been published offering suggestions to improve the situation, they do not seem to be comprehensive enough to cover the full complexity of this issue. In addition, no obvious improvements could be noticed in the field as yet. This article tries to consolidate the remarkable variety of conclusions and suggested activities into a more coherent conception. It is concluded that funding agencies and journal publishers need to take first and immediate measures to resolve these problems and lead the way to a more sustainable way of bioanalytical research, on which all can rely with confidence.

Challenges in Developing a Biochip for Intact Histamine Using Commercial Antibodies

“…The vendors are not still required to verify the quality of every new batch [49]. In an alerting notion Weller [20] hypothesized that high quality and well-characterized antibodies developed by academic groups are often sold to test kit manufacturers. Consequently, the antibodies available in the free market might be the ones with doubtful quality and insufficient information about their performance.…”

“…Several authors have addressed the issue and claimed for better characterization and profound information on the specificity and cross-reactivity of the antibodies [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. The antibodies in the market are often insufficiently characterized and furthermore they might possess batch-to-batch variation, usually in much larger extent with polyclonal antibodies compared to monoclonal.…”

“…The recommended applications are mainly immunohistochemistry (IHC) or immunocytochemistry (ICC), but also western blot, EIA and ELISA. Recently, several studies have pointed out the quality issues and traceability problem concerning commercial antibodies and the lack of quality in the antibody market has been widely recognized by the scientific community [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. Often, the characterization and specifications provided by the manufacturers are somewhat incomplete and, furthermore, the authors often fail to identify the exact antibody used [28][29][30] for other researchers to be able to purchase the same product.…”

Antibodies: Will Their Star Continue to Rise?

“…In just one of the multiple studies on antibody reliability, the Human Protein Atlas examined over 5000 commercial antibodies and demonstrated that over 50% could not be used in the proposed application [2]. This has huge implications for research conducted using these antibodies.…”

“…Since the 1970s when Köhler and Milstein produced hybridoma monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) through the fusion of antibody-producing mouse spleen cells with an immortal myeloma cell line [1], multiple research projects have utilized antibodies and it has been estimated that there are over 300 companies offering 2 million antibodies for research purposes [2]. …”