Proteomics technical guide

PROTEOMICS TECHNICAL GUIDE

Peptide - Monoclonal - Polyclonal - Detection

PROTEOMICS

Antigens

Customer-provided protein

As long as a protein can be recognized as a foreign compound by the host immune system, immunizing 

directly with a protein is a very efficient way to produce antibodies, due to the huge number of epitopes 

present at the protein surface.

Antigen Format

Usually we work with the following antigen formats:

Lyophilised

You can send us your freeze-dried antigen at ambient temperature. The antigen will be dissolved in 0.9 % salt 

solution (physiological solution) and aliquoted for the different injections and frozen at –20 °C.

If the antigen is poorly soluble in aqueous solution, we suggest that you avoid lyophilisation and that you send 

us your protein in solution on dry ice. The addition of adjuvant will help to dissolve even lipophilic proteins. If 

the antigen does not dissolve, a fine suspension of the antigen will be obtained by thorough mixing. Such fine 

suspensions can also be useful for antibody production because particles are efficiently phagocyted.

Solutions

You can send us your antigen in solution on dry ice.

We recommend to limit as far as possible the use of detergents and aggressive chemicals such as urea, acetic 

acid, guanidine hydrochloride, heavy metals and other agents that are toxic to the host animal.

Compound or formulations

Allowed

Not allowed

Water

Yes, keep the volume small (1 ml)

-

PBS

Yes, keep the volume small (1 ml)

-

Physiological buffer solutions

Yes, keep the volume small (1 ml)

-

Metal dyes/heavy metals

-

Risk of toxicity

Salts (KCl, NaCl, MgCl

2

)

< 1.0 M

> 1.0 M

SDS

< 2.0 %

> 2.0 %

Urea

< 6.0 M (in rabbits)

> 6.0 M

Guanidinium HCl

-

Risk of toxicity

Digoxin/Digoxigenin

-

Risk of toxicity

Octylglucoside

<1.0 %

> 1.0 %

Triton X-100/Tween-20

< 0.2 %

> 0.2 %

Glycerol

< 20 %

> 20 %

PMSF

-

Risk of toxicity

Pefabloc

< 0.4 mM

> 0.1 mM

Leupeptin/Pepstatin

< 1 µM

> 1 µM

DTT

< 3 M

> 3 M

Mercaptoethanol

-

Risk of toxicity

Imidazole

< 3 M

> 3 M

TFA

-

High risk of toxicity

Table 8: Compounds and formulations that are acceptable for immunisation