Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 6, 2026
The Use of Reverse Phase Protein Arrays RPPA to Explore Protein Expression Variation within Individual Renal Cell Cancers
Published on: January 22, 2013
Comparison of Aptamer-Based and Antibody-Based Assays for Protein Quantification in Chronic Kidney Disease
Carolina Lopez-Silva1, Aditya Surapaneni2,3, Josef Coresh1,2,3
1Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland.
Background And Objectives:
Novel aptamer-based technologies can identify >7000 analytes per sample, offering a high-throughput alternative to traditional immunoassays in biomarker discovery. However, the specificity for distinct proteins has not been thoroughly studied in the context of CKD.
Design, Setting, Participants, & Measurements:
We assessed the use of SOMAscan, an aptamer-based technology, for the quantification of eight immune activation biomarkers and cystatin C among 498 African American Study of Kidney Disease and Hypertension (AASK) participants using immunoassays as the gold standard. We evaluated correlations of serum proteins as measured by SOMAscan versus immunoassays with each other and with iothalamate-measured GFR. We then compared associations between proteins measurement with risks of incident kidney failure and all-cause mortality.
Results:
Six biomarkers (IL-8, soluble TNF receptor superfamily member 1B [TNFRSF1B], cystatin C, soluble TNF receptor superfamily member 1A [TNFRSF1A], IL-6, and soluble urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor [suPAR]) had non-negligible correlations (r=0.94, 0.93, 0.89, 0.85, 0.46, and 0.23, respectively) between SOMAscan and immunoassay measurements, and three (IL-10, IFN-γ, and TNF-α) were uncorrelated (r=0.08, 0.07, and 0.02, respectively). Of the six biomarkers with non-negligible correlations, TNFRSF1B, cystatin C, TNFRSF1A, and suPAR were negatively correlated with measured GFR and associated with higher risk of kidney failure. IL-8, TNFRSF1B, cystatin C, TNFRSF1A, and suPAR were associated with a higher risk of mortality via both methods. On average, immunoassay measurements were more strongly associated with adverse outcomes than their SOMAscan counterparts.
Conclusions:
SOMAscan is an efficient and relatively reliable technique for quantifying IL-8, TNFRSF1B, cystatin C, and TNFRSF1A in CKD and detecting their potential associations with clinical outcomes.
Podcast:
This article contains a podcast at https://www.asn-online.org/media/podcast/CJASN/2022_02_23_CJN11700921.mp3.
Related Concept Videos
01:33Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
There are many different types of ELISAs, but they all involve an antibody molecule whose constant region binds an enzyme, leaving the variable region free to bind its specific antigen. Enzyme-substrate reaction allows the antigen to be visualized or quantified.
01:25Drug Dosing in Renal Diseases: Measurement of Glomerular Filtration Rate
01:28Drug Dosing in Renal Diseases: Estimation of Glomerular Filtration Rate Based on Serum Creatinine Concentration