T-SPOT® technology is an innovative diagnostic platform technology which offers new ways of diagnosing disease by providing a simple and extremely accurate method of measuring an individual's immune response to an infection. T-SPOT technology is a modification of the ELISPOT assay platform which has been widely used for over two decades to measure B cell and memory T cell function. Oxford Immunotec has applied and optimized the ELISPOT principle to the specific measurement of effector T cells. Further development and validation has made the test suitable for routine diagnostic use.
When someone becomes infected with a disease, the body produces specific cells (effector T cells) to fight the infection.
The T-SPOT tests are able to identify if the body is producing these cells which indicates if a person is infected and if they are effectively fighting the infection.
The T-SPOT technology is protected by several global families of patents and is the only technique to measure T cells that is suitable for routine clinical practice.
The T-SPOT®.TB test is the first commercial application of the T-SPOT technology. The T-SPOT.TB test is an in vitro diagnostic assay that identifies both latent TB infection and active disease.
The T-SPOT platform technology could be applied to diagnose and monitor any major disease driven by a T cell response. The technology is particularly pertinent where current methods of monitoring and diagnosing disease, such as more traditional antibody based tests, have proved to be inadequate.
