Biomarkers are physiological signals of states of health and illness–molecules that can indicate the presence of specific diseases. Their discovery has become an incredibly important area of medical research. They can indicate cancer, infection, inflammation, organ failure – practically any condition.
The discovery of biomarkers is complicated by the incredible variety of molecules always present in physiological samples, especially in the field of proteomics. The chief difficulty is analyzing and identifying the contents of a sample, which may contain only a very small amount of the sought-after molecules. This makes multiplex technologies, with their ability to measure many analytes simultaneously, an important tool for biomarker discovery.
This physiological complexity comes into play in the study of biomarkers for fertility in women. The endometrium, the mucous membrane surrounding the uterus, must be receptive at the correct time for pregnancy to occur. The study of this area is made difficult due to the constantly-changing biomarker composition of the endometrium.
A March 2013 study published in Fertility and Sterility found that multiplex assay instruments designed by Luminex provide a more efficient way to do research by searching for many molecules at once. The authors found that, due to the changing nature of the endometrium and the high variability in molecular composition between women, multiplex technologies are the most promising approach to identifying biomarkers for infertility.
Once biomarkers are identified and categorized, their functions and relation to infertility can be determined by “subsequent definition of cellular location, timing of production of identified proteins, and their regulation by steroid hormones and blastocyst-derived factors.”
These findings will inform the study of infertility, and provide scientists with new tools for research.
In a separate study at the University of Oxford, researchers compared the benefits of Luminex multiplex technologies to those provided by Meso Scale Discovery (MSD) technologies. They studied synovial fluid (SF) samples taken from the knees of patients with osteoarthritis. SF serves to cushion the knee joint, and is a non-Newtonian fluid, making it very difficult to repeat assays with precision.
Knee joints afflicted by osteoarthritis do not provide enough SF for multiple traditional assay techniques such as ELISA, making multiplex technologies the perfect tool for research by allowing the discovery of multiple analytes from a single sample.
The Luminex® 200™ and MSD Sector® Imager 6000 both increased assay efficiency, but only the Luminex instrument was proven to provide “better precision and higher assay signals during multiplex analysis… compared to neat or diluted samples.” The MSD instrument did not provide any conclusive benefit in these areas.
The authors conclude that multiplex assay technologies, provided by Luminex in particular, are the most efficient and successful tools for biomarker discovery within synovial fluid.
These studies are among many that have shown the benefits of and successful research done with Luminex multiplex technologies. For a full listing of all Luminex publications visit our web bibliography.