Preparation of monoclonal antibody based indirect competitive ELISA for detecting 19-nortestosterone residue

Biological Activity of the Carrier as a Factor in Immunogen Design for Haptens

Immunoanalytical methods are frequently employed in the detection of hazardous small molecular weight compounds. However, antibody development for these molecules is a challenge, because they are haptens and cannot induce a humoral immune response in experimental animals. Immunogenic forms of haptens are usually prepared by conjugating them to a protein carrier which serves as an immune stimulator. However, the carrier is usually considered merely as a bulk mass, and its biological activity is ignored. Here, we induced an endocytic receptor, transferrin receptor, by selecting its ligand as a carrier protein to enhance antibody production. We conjugated aflatoxin, a potent carcinogenic food contaminant, to transferrin and evaluated its potential to stimulate antibody production with respect to ovalbumin conjugates. Transferrin conjugates induced aflatoxin-specific immune responses in the second immunization, while ovalbumin conjugates reached similar antibody titers after 5 injections. Monoclonal antibodies were successfully developed with mice immunized with either of the conjugates.

Development and validation of a blocking ELISA test for the detection of avian influenza antibodies in poultry species

Avian influenza (AI) is an infectious viral disease usually asymptomatic in wild birds that can spread to domestic poultry and cause large-scale outbreaks. Some of the AI viruses (AIV) can cross the species barrier and induce fatal disease to humans, a matter of great concern worldwide. Early detection of AIV is of major importance for disease control, since prompt implementation of adequate measures can prevent spread of the virus and therefore further outbreaks. This paper reports the development and validation of a blocking ELISA using a monoclonal antibody against a conserved structural protein for the serologic diagnosis of all AI virus subtypes from domestic bird species, allowing the quick, easily automated and low-cost screening of a high number of farms. The test will be of great value not only for surveillance, but also for monitoring the efficiency of vaccination programs. Cut-off values were established in 20% of inhibition for turkey sera and in 50% of inhibition for chicken and duck sera. Estimations of 100% specificity and 100% sensitivity were obtained based on the results of known AI positive (n=130) and negative (n=208) sera, including serum samples from birds infected with other common avian viral pathogens (n=7). ROC analysis showed an area under curve (AUC) of 1.0 for chicken, duck and turkey sera, indicating that the blocking ELISA was able to perfectly discriminate between negative and positive samples of any of the poultry species tested. Inter- and intra-assay coefficients of variation were above the acceptance threshold. Furthermore, the ELISA titers were similar to the known hemagglutination inhibition titers of three positive reference sera indicating sensitivity comparable with the golden standard HI method. The method here described is an economically attractive alternative to the commercial ELISAs currently available.

Development and Characterization of Anti-Estradiol Polyclonal Antibody

This paper reports an indirect competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (icELISA) using polyclonal antibody (pAb) for estradiol (E2) residues. After derivation, E2 haptens were conjugated to bovine serum albumin (BSA) and ovalbumin (OVA) through 1-Ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropy) carbodiimide (EDC) method, and New Zealand white rabbits were immunized to produce anti-E2 pAb. The conjugation ratio of E2-BSA was proved to be 18.6:1 by an UV absorbance method. Based on the square matrix titration, an icELISA standard curve was developed. The dynamic range was from 0.16 to 128 ng/mL, with LOD and IC50 value of 0.08 ng/mL and 3.76 ng/mL, respectively. Except for a little cross-reactivity (16.2%) to estrone, this assay showed negligible cross-reactivity to other analogues tested. The results suggest that the produced anti-E2 pAb could be used to develop an icELISA method for the determination of E2 residues in animal-originally products.