Use of JMP® for Optimizing a Custom Peptide Microarray to Identify Autoantibodies for Multiple Sclerosis

About this paper

Design of experiment (DOE) was utilized to optimize a peptide microarray to test autoantibodies in serum against various components of the myelin sheath. Incorporating the ideal assay conditions from a single DOE experiment versus multiple sequential experiments resulted in a reproducible serum assay with low variability, low nonspecific background, and a high level of distinction between multiple sclerosis (MS) and normal samples. A minimum set of peptides was found that achieved a sensitivity of 90 percent. Autoantibodies against each individual peptide were elevated in at least 35 percent of the individual MS patients tested.