The development of a sialic acid specific lectin‐immunoassay for the measurement of human chorionic gonadotrophin glycoforms in serum and its application in normal and Down's syndrome pregnancies

Abstract

This assay will allow analysis of serum samples for the investigation of sialylated variants of hCG glycoforms in various pathological and physiological situations.

Determination of hyperglycosylated human chorionic gonadotropin produced by malignant gestational trophoblastic neoplasias and male germ cell tumors using a lectin-based immunoassay and surface plasmon resonance

“…This antibody was raised against a choriocarcinoma-derived hCG, and its increased binding may indicate trophoblastic disease (Birken et al 2001), but it may also be useful in detecting risk of pregnancy complications such as early pregnancy loss (Kovalevskaya et al 2002b) and Down syndrome , Pandian et al 2003. A lectin immunoassay using WGA binding on hCG in serum (Abushoufa et al 2000) was not an effective additional marker in screening for Down syndrome in the first trimester (Spencer et al 2002), but it was not tested with urine specimens. It would be interesting to ascertain if differences in GNA binding could supplement differences in B152 binding as part of a multiple-marker screening for Down syndrome.…”

Les raisons de l'élévation de l'hCG dans le sérum de mères porteuses d'un fœtus trisomique

“…L'utilisation de cet anticorps permet de détecter une forme d'hCG hyperglycosylée (l'H-hCG ou ITA), trouvée en plus grande proportion dans le sérum et l'urine de la mère porteuse d'un foetus trisomique [37][38][39]. Cette constatation l'a amené à proposer l'ITA comme un marqueur potentiel pour le dépistage de la trisomie 21 au premier ou deuxième trimestre de grossesse [40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47].…”

Do immunoassays differentially detect different acidity glycoforms of FSH?

“…Without a better understanding of the binding mechanisms involved, and in the light of the relatively small differences seen in our results, the prospect of antibody‐based assays capable of measuring different classes of glycoproteins of FSH may be limited. For this reason, alternative techniques such as the use of carbohydrate specific lectins (Abushoufa et al ., 1998; Oliver et al ., 1998) are currently being evaluated.…”