The quantification of antibody elements and receptors subunit expression using qPCR: The design of VH, VL, CH, CL, FcR subunits primers for a more holistic view of the immune system

The expression levels of immunoglobulin elements and their receptors are important markers for health and disease. Within the immunoglobulin locus, the constant regions and the variable region families are associated with certain pathologies, yet a holistic view of the interaction between the expressions of the multiple genes remain to be fully characterized. There is thus an important need to quantify antibody elements, their receptors and the receptor subunits in blood (PBMC cDNA) for both screening and detailed studies of such associations. Leveraging on qPCR, we designed primers for all Vκ1-6, VH1-7, Vλ1-11, nine CH isotypes, Cκ, Cκ, Cλ1 &3, FcεRI α,β, and γ subunits, all three FcγR and their subunits, and FcαR. Validating this on a volunteer PBMC cDNA, we report a qPCR primer set repertoire that can quantify the relative expression of all the above genes to the GAPDH housekeeping gene, with implications and uses in both clinical monitoring and research.