Impact of Blocking and Detection Chemistries on Antibody Performance for Reverse Phase Protein Arrays

Abstract

Careful selection of well-qualified antibodies is critical for accurate data collection from reverse phase protein arrays (RPPA). The most common way to qualify antibodies for RPPA analysis is by Western blotting because the detection mechanism is based on the same immunodetection principles. Western blots of tissue or cell lysates that result in single bands and low cross-reactivity indicate appropriate antibodies for RPPA detection. Western blot conditions used to validate antibodies for RPPA experiments, including blocking and detection reagents, have significant effects on aspects of antibody performance such as cross-reactivity against other proteins in the sample. We have found that there can be a dramatic impact on antibody behavior with changes in blocking reagent and detection method, and offer an alternative method that allows detection reagents and conditions to be held constant in both antibody validation and RPPA experiments.