Patent ID: 8026070

Claim:
A method for differentially detecting a multimeric form from a monomeric form of a multimer-forming polypeptide in a biosample, comprising: (a) contacting the biosample to a capturing antibody recognizing an epitope on the multimer-forming polypeptide to capture the monomeric form, multimeric form or monomeric and multimeric forms; (b) contacting the monomeric form, multimeric form or monomeric and multimeric forms captured by the capturing antibody to a detecting antibody recognizing an epitope which is overlapped with, but not identical to the epitope of (a); wherein said detecting antibody is linked to a label generating a detectable signal; and said epitope recognized by the capturing antibody or detecting antibody is not repeated in the monomeric form of a multimer-forming polypeptide; and (c) detecting the formation of a multimeric form-detection antibody complex by measuring a signal generated from the label linked to the detecting antibody.