With ALEX²

Reduce clinically irrelevant results through CCD-blocking

What are CCDs?

Cross-reactive carbohydrate determinants (CCDs) are sugar structures present in various pollen, fruits, cereals, nuts, spices, and insect venoms and can induce IgE-production in up to 30% of allergic individuals, which can be regarded as a serious problem. The automatic blocking of CCDs through ALEX² is incredibly important, as it drastically reduces the number of clinically irrelevant results in patient reports.

Impact on diagnostic accuracy

CCD reactivity can impact the diagnostic accuracy of the quantitative measurement of IgE antibodies in a patient's serum analysis and has major impact on the outcome of IgE testing.

  • Co-determination of IgE antibodies directed against CCD structures can give a misleading impression of clinically relevant polysensitisation
  • This leads to inaccurate diagnosis and subsequently recommendation of non-indicated immunotherapy

CCD-free allergy diagnostics with ALEX²

To eliminate CCD-antibody interference, MADx integrated a CCD-blocker to ALEX² which has the potential to adsorb CCD-specific antibodies. The CCD-blocker is part of every ALEX² test kit without the need for an additional incubation step.

  • CCD-blocker is included in the serum diluent used in the first assay step
  • CCD-specific IgE is bound by the CCD-blocker and cannot combine with the CCD-structures present on the allergens
  • It prevents the binding of CCD-specific antibodies to CCDs on purified allergens (e.g., Cor a 11 from hazelnut) or CCD-containing allergen extracts (e.g., onion)
Eva, 19, from North-Western Europe
Case Study

This case study shows the strong influence CCD-specific antibodies can have on test results. In this case, the automatic CCD-blocking of the ALEX test drastically reduced the number of clinically irrelevant results from 110 to 10.

Read full case study

The importance of CCD-blocking

The important effect of CCD-blocking becomes clear when comparing the results of an ALEX² test with and without CCD-blocking.

  • The test lacking CCD-blocking generates several misleading test results
  • ALEX² with CCD-blocking eliminates misleading test results due to CCD-interference
  • CCD-blocking avoids clinically irrelevant results and is essential for accurate in-vitro allergy testing
  • This approach leads to a better patient management by avoiding overtreatment

ALEX² (Allergy Xplorer) is based on our proprietary nano-bead technology. Every allergen can be individually optimised for production. Our test panel is comprised of allergen extracts and molecular allergens and gives a comprehensive picture of each patient’s sensitisation status.

Available kits:
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Sugar-free allergy diagnostics

Dive deeper into the topic of CCDs in allergy diagnostics with the second edition of our e-magazine, THE XPLORER, first published in November 2022. Click below to view and download:

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