Immunochemical characterization of Naja naja siamensis toxin and of a chemically modified toxin

Some parameters of affinity chromatography in the purification of antibody against Naja naja siamensis toxin 3

Some parameters in the purification of antibodies against Naja naja siamensis toxin 3 by affinity chromatography were studied on toxin Sepharose, toxin-succinylaminoethyl Sepharose, toxin-albumin Sepharose and toxin succinylaminoethyl Biogel adsorbents. Immunologically pure antibody with 10-12-fold increase in potency was obtained by chromatography of horse refined globulin on all these adsorbents. The maximum antibody binding capacities were higher for adsorbents containing linear spacers but represented only 7-16% of the theoretical binding capacity. The operational half-lives of the adsorbents ranged from 19 to 108 days with toxin-albumin Sepharose showing the highest stability. The recovery of neutralizing capacity was about 30-356% for any of the 4 adsorbents. It is concluded that improvements regarding the antibody binding capacity and the recovery of neutralizing capacity should be made before large scale purification of antibody for therapeutic purposes can be attempted.

Immunoassay for honey bee cytochrome c in single animals with cytochrome c-coated bacteriophages: a sensitive tool for the study of caste formation in the honey bee, Apis mellifera

The development of a sensitive viroimmunoassay for honey bee cytochrome c and its usage for early detection of caste differentiation is described. Pure honey bee cytochrome c was isolated from workers and used to produce antibodies in rabbits. Bacteriophage T4 was chemically modified by covalent attachment of honey bee cytochrome c using tolylene-2,4-diisocyanate as a cross-linking agent. The immunospecific inactivation of this bacteriophage-cytochrome c conjugate by anti-cytochrome c antibodies can be inhibited by free cytochrome c. In quantitative determinations, 50% inhibition is reproducibly achieved at a concentration of 6 ng/ml (5 pmol/ml) and as little as 0.3 ng/ml (0.25 pmol/ml) could be detected by this system. Cytochrome c concentrations were measured in individual animals and substantial differences corresponding larval stages of worker and queen bees are reported.