Procalcitonin (PCT) Antibodies

Procalcitonin

Procalcitonin (PCT) is a peptide precursor of the hormone calcitonin, the latter being involved with calcium homeostasis. The level of PCT in the blood stream of healthy individuals is below the limit of detection (0.01 µg/L) of clinical assays¹, but rises to as high as 100 µg/L in a response to a proinflammatory stimulus, especially of bacterial origin.

The procalcitonin test has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2005 for use in conjunction with other laboratory findings and clinical assessments to assist in the risk assessment of critically ill people for progression to severe sepsis and septic shock, and the use of PCT test has been steadily increasing in recent years.

PCT levels may be useful to distinguish bacterial infections from nonbacterial infections. Trials from 2008 and 2009 have shown that they may help guide therapy and reduce antibiotic use, which can help save on cost of antibiotic prescriptions and drug resistance^{2, 3}

AvantGen has generated a compatible pair of high affinity rabbit monoclonal diagnostic antibodies against human PCT. These clones are suitable for high sensitivity PCT assay development.

References:
1. Dandona, P, et al., Procalcitonin increase after endotoxin injection in normal subjects. J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 1994; 79, (6): 1605–8.

2. Schuetz, P., et al.,  Effect of procalcitonin-based guidelines vs standard guidelines on antibiotic use in lower respiratory tract infections: the ProHOSP randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 2009;302(10):1059-66.

3.  Briel M, et al.,  Procalcitonin-guided antibiotic use vs a standard approach for acute respiratory tract infections in primary care. Arch Intern Med. 2008;168(18):2000-7; discussion 2007-8.