Endotoxin-core antibody (EndoCAb) Home Page

e-mail: Info@ESKIA.com
or fax: (+44) 131 454 9181

The EndoCAb ELISA Web Page: new edition under revision

At the Edinburgh Regional Transfusion Centre of the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) in the 1980's we developed an interest in the potential role of cross-reactive antibodies to the core region of endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in protecting the host against the pathogenic effects of endotoxin, and their possible use in passive immunotherapy. We developed a relevant assay for endotoxin core antibody (EndoCAb), and showed that these antibodies are commonly present and readily detectable in plasma from healthy individuals, and established normal ranges for IgG, IgM and IgA classes of EndoCAb.

A number of studies in which we participated have confirmed abnormal levels and perturbations of normal levels of EndoCAb in a variety of clinical conditions, and have indicated a role for the EndoCAb assay in diagnosis, especially in predicting "at risk" clinical groups or cases.

Studies with EndoCAb hyperimmune plasma, gammaglobulin and anti-LPS-core cross-reactive monoclonal antibodies (not to lipid A) have shown in vivo and in vitro activity against endotoxin pathogenesis. Such studies have strongly supported a potential role for these or similar antibodies as anti-endotoxin therapeutic agents.

Since SNBTS no longer supports research in this area, ESKIA has maintained the EndoCAb assay to promote and support this and other relevant technologies developed during that period by Robin Barclay and colleagues in Edinburgh.

Background:
Endotoxin-core structures
Basis of EndoCAb ELISA
EndoCAb Normal Values
Anti-endotoxin-core therapeutic antibodies: 1999 editorial

Some EndoCAb studies:
EndoCAb review 1994*
Recent cardiac bypass studies
Full reference bibliography (1999)

Monoclonal anti-LPS-core antibodies:
Background to MAb project
Production of anti-LPS-core MAbs
Use of MAbs in a lab study (LAL inhibition) to distinguish circulating endotoxin from clinical bacterial isolate*

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