A NOVEL YERSINIA PESTIS PROTEOME MICROARRAY FOR ANALYSIS OF COMPLEX ANTIBODY RESPONSES

Abstract

Innovations in high-throughput protein production and microarray surface technologies have enabled the development of addressable, high density protein arrays. Protein-based microarrays allow the global observation a biochemical activities on an unprecedented scale, where hundreds or thousands of proteins can be simultaneously screened for protein-protein, protein-nucleic acid, and small molecule interactions. A novel Yersinia pestis whole proteome microarray was developed and an assay was optimized for validating the array in measuring diversity of antibody responses during plague. Analysis of antisera produced against the Y. pestis proteome and against proteomes of several evolutionarily related Gram-negative bacteria resulted in identification of specific biomarkers for each disease. Antibodies from convalescent and acute phase sera was also analyzed and resulted in identification of specific antibody binding patterns. This technology holds great potential for basic molecular biology research, disease marker identification, toxicological response profiling, vaccine development and pharmaceutical target screening.