Neutekbio is developing a full range of products to meet your needs in regard to the measurement and detection of cytokine biological activity.

Specificity
At that moment, Neutekbio's iLite^TM kit is a simple and rapid test for the detection and quantification of the biological activity of all Human Type I IFNs including IFNα, IFNβ and IFNω. The test can efficiently measure IFN activity in serum, cerebrospinal fluid, urine, cell culture media and fermentation broths.
It can detect as little as 0.5 IU of IFNα bioactivity per ml of sample. The limit of detection for IFNβ is 6.0 IU per ml of sample. The effective measurement range (i.e. linear dose response) is from 0.5 IU per ml to approximately 150 IU per ml of sample. Both of these assay parameters are dependent upon length of incubation time.

iLite^TM kits specific for Human Type II IFNs and TNF will be available soon.

Principle
The iLite^TM kit is simply removed from the freezer, cells thawed and distributed into the 96-well plate. The patient specimen or sample containing the unknown is then added in the appropriate dilution. The cytokine in the sample bind to available cell surface receptor and induces the production of the luciferase enzyme in a dose-dependent manner. Depending on your objectives, the cells are incubated for 4 to 18 hours. At this time, the amount of active enzyme molecules is directly related to the number of cytokine molecules that have bound to the cell surface receptor. The luminescent substrates for the enzyme are then added and the reaction measured in a conventional luminometer. The level of luciferase enzyme activity observed in the iLite^TM assay, termed "Relative Light Units" can be correlated to International Units (IU) of the cytokine by generation of a standard curve using the supplied IFN stock which is calibrated against a WHO International Reference standard IFN and reading RLU of unknowns from this curve.