A Simple and Rapid Light-Initiated Chemiluminescence Assay for Quantitation of <b><i>Artemisia</i></b>-Specific Immunoglobulin E

<b><i>Background:</i></b> Light-initiated chemiluminescence assay (LICA) is a homogeneous assay that has been successfully used for the quantitation of food allergen-specific immunoglobulin E (sIgE), but not inhaled allergen-sIgE. Simultaneously, current assays used to detect allergen-sIgE are serum consuming and/or time consuming. Hence, we established a method for the quantitation of <i>Artemisia</i>-sIgE based on LICA and verified its performance according to the clinical guideline documents, laying a foundation for the quantitation of inhaled and food allergen-sIgE in parallel on LICA. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> The assay was established after optimizing the first incubation time and the dilutions of <i>Artemisia</i>-coated chemibeads, biotinylated goat anti-human IgE, and serum. In order to quantitate <i>Artemisia</i>-sIgE, the calibration curve was established with a high positive serum of known concentration. The assay performance was confirmed per the clinical guideline documents. In addition, the correlation between the results of LICA and capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was evaluated. <b><i>Results:</i></b> The developed LICA’s coefficients of variation of repeatability and intermediate precision were 3.20%, 2.14%, and 3.85% and 4.30%, 4.00%, and 4.40%, respectively. The limit of detection was 0.10 kU_A/L, and the limit of quantitation was 0.11 kU_A/L. The range of linearity was from 0.27 kU_A/L to 97.53 kU_A/L (<i>r</i> = 0.9968). The correlation coefficient (<i>r</i>) for the correlation analysis between results of LICA and capture ELISA was 0.9087. This assay was successfully applied in 64 human serum samples, showing good sensitivity (82.20%) and specificity (100%). <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> An <i>Artemisia</i>-sIgE quantitation assay based on LICA was successfully established. Its performance satisfied the clinical requirements and could be widely used in clinical laboratories.