Development of a sensitive microarray immunoassay for the quantitative analysis of neuropeptide Y

A direct competitive immunoassay in an antibody microarray format was developed for the sensitive detection of neuropeptide Y (NPY) and employed in the analysis of NPY in human sweat samples. This is the first demonstration that antibody microarray, as a powerful multiplex analysis tool, can be used for the sensitive determination of NPY and potentially other neuropeptides. 400 pg/mL of dibiotinylated NPY and 0.1 mg/mL spotting capture antibody were found to offer the best performance, yielding a sensitivity of 50 pg/mL and a linear dynamic range of 0.1-100 ng/mL for NPY. Evaluation of matrix effects by using artificial sweat revealed that dialysis is necessary for analyzing NPY in human sweat samples with microarray immunoassay. In a preliminary application, 50-210 pg/mL of NPY was detected in sweat samples collected with Macroduct collectors. This study indicates that antibody microarrays can be used for NPY analysis and that human sweat could be a valuable sample source for biomarker and proteomics studies, especially when noninvasive human sample collection is preferable.