Patent ID: 8877514

Claim:
A method for identifying the presence of an antigen or an antibody in a sample from a human subject, the method comprising: contacting the sample with a complementary capture antibody or a capture antigen in an aqueous solution, specifically binding the antigen or the antibody to the complementary capture antibody or capture antigen, respectively; and detecting the presence of the antigen or antibody bound to the complementary capture antibody or capture antigen with a detector antibody that binds to either (a) the antigen, which is bound to the complementary capture antibody, or (b) the antibody, which is bound to the capture antigen, said sample further comprising a human anti-animal antibody that interferes with the specific binding between the antigen or the antibody in the sample and the complementary capture antibody or capture antigen, said aqueous solution comprising: a) a buffer to control pH; b) a compound A selected from the group consisting of polyalkylene glycol, polypropylene glycol, propylene glycol, polyethylene glycol, ethylene glycol, monosaccharides, disaccharides, trisaccharides, saccharose, mannose, trehalose, polyol, glycerol and mixtures thereof; and c) a non-ionic detergent, wherein the concentration of compound A is from 2.0-15.0% and the concentration of the non-ionic detergent is from 0.1-1.0%, wherein the concentration of compound A is in terms of % (v/v) when compound A is a liquid or the concentration of compound A is in terms of % (w/v) when compound A is a solid; wherein the ratio of the non-ionic detergent to the compound A is from 1:15 to 1:25; wherein the non-ionic detergent is a compound selected from the group consisting of: a) a substituted phenyl residue having substituents R 1 and R 2 (R 1 -Ph-R 2 ), wherein R 1 is C 1 -C 9 alkyl group, R 2 is a —O—[CH 2 —CH 2 —O] a —H group, wherein “a” is an integer of 5-40, wherein R 2 in respect to R 1 is para, meta or ortho position; b) wherein n, x, y and z together is an integer of 5 to 40, R is a fatty acid residue; c) Dodecylpoly(ethyleneglycolether) m , wherein m is an integer of 5 to 40; d) 1-O-n-Octyl-β-D-glucopyranodise (n-octylglucoside); and e) 1-O-n-Dodecyl-β-D-glucopyranosyl (1-4)alpha-D-glucopyranoside; and wherein said aqueous solution reduces the binding of the human anti-animal antibody in the sample to the complementary capture antigen or capture antibody, thereby reducing interference by the human anti-animal antibody with the specific binding of said antigen or antibody to the complementary capture antibody or capture antigen, compared to conducting said specific binding in the absence of said aqueous solution.