Label-free, arrayed sensing of immune response to influenza antigens

Periodic outbreaks of pandemic influenza have been a devastating cause of human mortality over the past century. More recently, an avian influenza strain, designated H5N1, has been identified as having the potential to cause a zoogenic pandemic in humans, and a current outbreak of a new H1N1 influenza variant hypothesized to be of swine origin is of considerable concern. In order to facilitate surveillance and the rapid assessment and comparison of vaccination efforts, a high-throughput assay is highly desirable to supplement standard methods, which require high biosafety-level facilities. In this paper, we describe the design, production, and preliminary evaluation of an antigen array incorporating a panel of hemagglutinins as a platform for the detection and rapid quantification of influenza-specific antibodies in human serum by Arrayed Imaging Reflectometry (AIR), a label-free optical biosensor.