LEGEND MAX™ Human APRIL/TNFSF13 ELISA Kit with Pre-coated Plates 5 Pre-coated Plates

A Proliferation-Inducing Ligand (APRIL), also known as TNFSF13, as its name suggests, stimulates cell proliferation. It is a member of the TNF superfamily of ligands, being most closely related to BAFF, with which it shares 30% amino acid sequence identity. APRIL is cleaved intracellularly by furin and is believed to exist mainly in a secreted, soluble form. As with most other TNF family members, APRIL exists as a functional homotrimer (total MW = 90 kD). It can bind to two cell surface receptors, BCMA and TACI, which it shares with BAFF to exert downstream T- and B-cell regulatory effects. It also possesses a heparin binding domain and has been demonstrated to bind to proteoglycans on the cell surface.

APRIL is most well known for its tumor proliferation effects. It is a potential biomarker, with serum levels elevated for certain cancers and expression levels elevated in cancer tissues. It is also a potential biomarker for certain autoimmune diseases. In fact, recombinant TACI is currently in clinical trials as a neutralization drug against APRIL and BAFF for the treatment of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE).

Besides forming homotrimers, APRIL can also form functional heterotrimers with BAFF. The stoichiometric relationship of the protomeric units is still unclear, however it appears that these heterotrimers are significant in that they are elevated in the serum of certain autoimmune patients.

APRIL also forms an endogenous chimeric protein with another related protein, TWEAK, effectively called TWE-PRIL. It is believed that TWE-PRIL is membrane bound and consists of the N-terminus of TWEAK with its transmembrane domain, and the C-terminus of APRIL with its receptor binding domain.

BioLegend’s LEGEND MAX™ Human APRIL/TNFSF13 ELISA Kit is a sandwich Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) with a 96-well strip-well plate that is pre-coated with a monoclonal capture antibody. This kit is specifically designed for the accurate protein quantitation of human APRIL/TNFSF13 from cell culture supernatant, serum, plasma, and other biological fluids. It can detect APRIL-BAFF heterotrimers, in addition to APRIL homotrimers. It is analytically validated with ready-to-use reagents.