Discussion

Soluble proteins are essential in my different processes including cell signaling and signal transduction. The detection and quantification of these proteins in solution provide key information about the dysfunctional signaling implicated in many disease areas such as cancer, immune disorders and aging. These signaling pathways are important therapeutic targets across the drug discovery process from primary screening to toxicity profiling.

In the case of cytokines from PBMCs, the simultaneous detection of multiple secreted cytokines can maximize the contextual and correlative value of the data. Using MultiCyt QBeads in conjunction with the iQue Screener, we show how cytokine profiling can be done in a high-throughput screening application. We look at the inter-assay reproducibility of the screen over 3 days in a 7-plex assay representing the activation of Th1, Th2, ad th17 T-helper cells in a 384-well plate format. Our results highlight the value of multiplexing in the generation of correlative data in a physiologically relevant context as well as in time and cost savings.