A unique epitope exposed in native complement component C9 and hidden in the terminal SC5b-9 complex enables...

Recently, monoclonal antibodies recognizing epitopes exposed in activation products of complement but hidden in the native components have been characterized and used for selective quantification of the activated protein. We now demonstrate that an epitope in the native component C9 is hidden in the terminal SC5b-9 complex. A monoclonal antibody against this epitope enabled selective detection of C9 without influence of the amount of SC5b-9 present. This antibody recognizing native soluble C9 was used to construct a quantitative double-antibody ELISA with unique sensitivity and specificity. Combination of this assay with an assay previously described for selective quantification of the SC5b-9 complex provides an important tool for evaluating terminal pathway activation of complement.