Biotinylated heparan sulfate antibodies

AMSBIO has launched two new biotinylated formats of the 10E4 Heparan Sulfate antibody (high and low biotin) along with a starter pack to allow scientists to test both formats at a reduced cost.

Heparan Sulfate (HS) is a highly sulfated linear polysaccharide that is attached to a core protein to form HS Proteoglycans on the cell membrane or in the extracellular matrix. It is involved in important biological processes due to it displaying specific interactions with many biologically active proteins. In particular, HS has emerged as a key factor in infection by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is the cause of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Biotinylated antibodies are often used for the detection of low-abundance proteins. The process of biotin-labeling is also frequently used as a non-radiative labeling method for proteins, and as a protein purification technique.

Biotin-conjugation of the Heparan Sulfate 10E4 antibody confers many advantages, by removing the need for conjugated secondary antibodies to quantify the level of detection/binding in immunological assays.

Jacob van den Born and co-workers have used biotinylated Heparan Sulfate 10E4 antibody in double and triple staining experiments**; giving them the freedom to choose the best fluorophore (conjugated to streptavidin) to visualize HS in combination with other antigens. Employing this strategy reduces expenditure on specific secondary antibodies, which are very expensive.

As the 10E4 antibody is a mouse monoclonal antibody, conjugated secondary antibodies will detect any endogenous mouse immunoglobulins already present in the sample as well as the added monoclonal antibody, leading to the risk of “false-positive” results in experiments with adult mouse samples. Using biotinylated Heparan Sulfate 10E4 antibody and enzyme-linked streptavidin, is a way of avoiding this problem.

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