Abstract
Patients treated with erythropoietin-based erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) can develop a rare but life-threatening condition called antibody-mediated pure red cell aplasia (amPRCA). The antibody characteristics in a nephrology patient with amPRCA include high antibody concentrations with neutralizing activity and a mixed IgG subclass including anti-ESA IgG4 antibodies. In contrast, anti-ESA IgG4 antibody is generally not detected in baseline samples and antibody-positive non-PRCA patients. Therefore, we validated a highly sensitive immunoassay on the ImmunoCAP 100 instrument to quantitate anti-ESA IgG4 antibodies using a human recombinant anti-epoetin alfa (EPO) IgG4 antibody as a calibrator. The biotinylated ESA was applied to a streptavidin ImmunoCAP, and bound anti-ESA IgG4 antibodies were detected using a β-galactosidase-conjugated mouse anti-human IgG4 antibody. The validated assay was used to detect anti-ESA IgG4 in amPRCA and non-PRCA patients. The immunoassay detected 15 ng/ml of human anti-EPO IgG4 antibody in the presence of a 200 M excess of human anti-ESA IgG1, IgG2, or IgM antibody and tolerated 2 μg/ml of soluble erythropoietin. All patient samples with confirmed amPRCA had measurable anti-ESA IgG4 antibodies. In addition, 94% (17/18) of non-PRCA patient samples were antibody negative or had below 15 ng/ml of anti-ESA IgG4 antibodies. This novel immunoassay can measure low-nanogram quantities of human anti-ESA IgG4 antibodies in the presence of other anti-ESA antibodies. An increased concentration of anti-ESA IgG4 antibody is associated with the development of amPRCA. We propose that the measurement of anti-ESA specific IgG4 antibodies may facilitate early detection of amPRCA in patients receiving all ESAs structurally related to human erythropoietin.