Principles and applications of immunoaffinity chromatography

Immunoaffinity Chromatography (IAC) is a type of liquid chromatography that uses the highly specific binding of antibodies for the retention of a target. This approach can be used in a myriad of techniques for the selective purification, concentration and/or analysis of target compounds. This chapter discusses the basic components of an IAC method, including the support, stationary phase, immobilization technique, and proper sample application and elution conditions. Several applications of IAC are also considered. These applications include immunoextraction, immunodepletion, chromatographic immunoassays, and post-column immunodetection. A wide range of targets that have been isolated or measured by these techniques are listed. Related methods based on antibody mimics are also discussed.