Video: ELISA Testing

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ELISA or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay can be used to test food sensitivity in relation to the immune system. Learn more about ELISA testing with tips from a licensed dietitian in this free video on nutrition.

Video Transcript

My name is Christine Marquette and I'm a registered dietitian and I'm going to talk to you about what is ELISA testing. Some people will refer to it as Eliza testing. That actually stands for Enzymed Linked Immunosorbent Assay. And it's actually used in a variety of tests involving the immune system. It can actually be used to detect HIV for example. It can be used to detect food sensitivities, food allergies. The way it's actually used is that a particular protein is tagged with an enzyme. What this enzyme will do if say for example if it's being used for an HIV test, once the particular protein is tagged with this enzyme and it's entered into your bloodstream, if there is the HIV virus, it will react with that enzyme and cause a color change. So that color change indicates that that person is infected with HIV. So it's a similar process with any other test. If it's going to be used for example for food sensitivity and you're looking at something for example with an allergy regarding an IGE response, that's an IGE antibody and immunoglobin antibody. If you take a protein in your bloodstream and your body has a food allergy to a particular food, those IGE antibodies will be released, they'll react with that enzyme tagged on the protein, and the color will change. So that you know that you have a positive food allergy test using that ELISA method.

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ELISA Testing

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