A young woman was going on a walk through the woods when she felt a mosquito bite her. She has a history of large local reaction
s to mosquito bites in the past. The reactions have been so severe she has even been skin tested, but the test came out negative. After the most recent bite, she went back to the doctor complaining of swelling at the site, dizziness, headache, and nausea. Benadryl is able to help relieve some symptoms. The doctor decides to try a blood test (i.e. ELISA based test) instead to test for allergies. Required:
a. What is an ELISA test and how is it done?
b. Which antibody would they be looking for specific in this case?
c. The doctors also ran an SDS-PAGE test using the patient's serum mixed with two different antigens: lane 1 - bee venom; lane 2 - mosquito venom. What do the results show regarding the patient’s allergies?
d. Why are there two dark blue bands in lane 2?
e. Describe what happens during this specific type of allergic reaction.
