A comparative study between animals and monoclonal anti-digitoxin antibodies

Association constants of monoclonal antibodies for hapten: heterogeneity of frequency distribution and possible relationship with hapten molecular weight

Using published data, we have investigated the relationship of the association constant (Ka) of 265 MAbs for haptens with molecular weights ranging from 111 to 1202 Da. The study indicates that: (1) differences of a factor 10(3)-10(5) are frequently found between the lowest and the highest value of Ka for the same hapten; (2) the relationship between log Ka and the hapten molecular weight of either the native drug or the molecular entity used for the Ka determination is described by a hyperbolic function; (3) beyond a critical molecular weight of approximately 300-325 Da, the log Ka reaches a plateau at a maximal value near 10(-12) M-1.

Specific binding characteristics of high affinity monoclonal antidigitoxin antibodies

The specificity of various monoclonal antidigitoxin antibodies was characterized using 6 cardiac glycoside analogs. Spleen cells from BALB/c mice, immunized with BSA- or KLH-digitoxin conjugates, were fused with NS1 myeloma cells, and antibody-producing hybrids were identified by radioimmunoassay. Twenty-one monoclonal antidigitoxin-specific antibodies were obtained, 10 of which were cloned and characterized for affinity and specificity. All the antibodies had a high affinity constant, ranging from 8.10(8) to 2.5.10(10) 1/M. On the basis of their binding specificities, the antibodies could be classified into 3 groups: the first contained 7 antibodies exhibiting high cross reactivity (42-100%) with digitoxigenin, whereas the second and third groups did not recognize this analog (cross-reactivity of 1%). In the former group, the absence of the sugar moiety only slightly affected the binding reaction, although for the two other groups, this structure did appear to be involved in antibody recognition. Changes in the functional groups of the hapten molecule led to considerable changes in the antibody-antigen reaction. For all the antibodies except one, saturation of the lactone ring considerably affected binding. These results demonstrated that monoclonal antibodies of different specificities with respect to both the steroid backbone and the sugar moiety of digitoxin can be induced using a digitoxin-protein conjugate.

Endogenous digitalis-like immunoreactive substances in cord serum characterized by anti-digitoxin and anti-digoxin antibodies. Effect of modulated incubation conditions

Digoxin-like immunoreactive substances (DLIS) have been extensively described in biological fluids of pregnant women, neonates and renal impaired patients, by the use of several digoxin immunoassays. In this paper a similar interference with anti-digitoxin antibodies is reported by investigating 20 cord sera. By increasing both the time and the temperature of the incubation, the levels of digitalis-like immunoreactive substances may be modulated and decreased to zero. Digitoxin- and digoxin-like immunoreactive substances have been successfully extracted with methanol and concentrated from cord serum. Our data suggest the competitive nature of DTLIS and DLIS interactions with digitalis antibodies. They also show a means of minimizing these interferences in routine digitalis immunoassays.