The PathScan^® Total ALK Chemiluminescent Sandwich ELISA Kit is a solid phase sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) that detects endogenous levels of total ALK protein and EML4-ALK or NPM-ALK fusion proteins with a chemiluminescent readout. Chemiluminescence ELISAs often have a wider dynamic range and higher sensitivity than conventional chromogenic detection. This chemiluminescent ELISA, which is offered in low volume microplates, shows increased signal and sensitivity while using a smaller sample size. An ALK rabbit antibody has been coated onto the microwells. After incubation with cell lysates, ALK and ALK fusion proteins are captured by the coated antibody. Following extensive washing, an ALK mouse antibody is added to detect the captured ALK and ALK fusion proteins. Anti-mouse IgG, HRP-linked antibody is then used to recognize the bound detection antibody. Chemiluminescent reagent is added for signal development. The magnitude of magnitude of light emission, measured in relative light units (RLU) is proportional to the quantity of total ALK and ALK fusion proteins.

*Antibodies in this kit are custom formulations specific to kit.

PathScan^® Total ALK Chemiluminescent Sandwich ELISA Kit #7084 detects endogenous levels of total ALK, EML4-ALK and NPM-ALK fusion proteins in human cells. This kit detects proteins from the indicated species, as determined through in-house testing, but may also detect homologous proteins from other species.

Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) is a tyrosine kinase receptor for pleiotrophin (PTN), a growth factor involved in embryonic brain development (1-3). In ALK-expressing cells, PTN induces phosphorylation of both ALK and the downstream effectors IRS-1, Shc, PLCγ, and PI3 kinase (1). ALK was originally discovered as a nucleophosmin (NPM)-ALK fusion protein produced by a translocation (4). Investigators have found that the NPM-ALK fusion protein is a constitutively active, oncogenic tyrosine kinase associated with anaplastic lymphoma (4). Research literature suggests that activation of PLCγ by NPM-ALK may be a crucial step for its mitogenic activity and involved in the pathogenesis of anaplastic lymphomas (5).
A distinct ALK oncogenic fusion protein involving ALK and echinoderm microtubule-associated protein like 4 (EML4) has been described in the research literature from a non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell line, with corresponding fusion transcripts present in some cases of lung adenocarcinoma. The short, amino-terminal region of the microtubule-associated protein EML4 is fused to the kinase domain of ALK (6-8).