Patent ID: 8298771

Claim:
A method of screening a sample of body fluid for TSH receptor autoantibodies wherein said sample is from a subject suspected of suffering from, susceptible to, having or recovering from autoimmune disease associated with an immune reaction to a TSH receptor, said method comprising: (a) contacting said sample with: a polypeptide comprising a full length TSH receptor so as to permit said polypeptide to bind with TSH receptor autoantibodies present in said sample; and one or more murine monoclonal antibodies capable of competing with autoantibodies to TSH receptor in the binding of said full length TSH receptor, wherein said one or more monoclonal antibodies is positive for thyroid stimulating activity at a concentration of 20 μg/ml in a cyclic AMP thyroid cell assay and inhibits binding of TSH to TSH receptor, said one or more monoclonal antibodies being classified as positive if the thyroid stimulating activity of said one or more monoclonal antibodies is greater than 180 percent in the cyclic AMP thyroid cell assay wherein said percent thyroid stimulating activity comprises 100 X ratio of cyclic AMP produced in the presence of said one or more monoclonal antibodies to cyclic AMP produced in the presence of sera pooled from healthy blood donors; and (b) detecting binding of said polypeptide with said autoantibodies thereby providing an indication of the presence of said autoantibodies in said sample.