Sensitivity enhancement of surface plasmon resonance biosensing of small molecules

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor formats using gold nanoparticle or protein signal amplification for the sensitive assay of small molecules were developed using progesterone as a model compound. Progesterone was immobilized to a dextran surface in the Biacore biosensor through in situ covalent immobilization using an oligoethylene glycol linker attached to the 4 position of the steroid. This surface produced stable antibody binding for in excess of 1100 assay cycles. Using this surface, assays were developed for progesterone using 10- and 20-nm gold-streptavidin labels attached to biotinylated monoclonal antibody in both label prebinding and sequential binding formats. Prelabeling formats gave no signal enhancement but produced assays with limits of detection of 143 pg/ml, compared with approximately 1 ng/ml in previous studies. Sequential binding formats gave signal enhancements of 2.2-fold over the monoclonal antibody and a limit of detection of 23.1 pg/ml. It was found that secondary antibody labeling gave 8.1-fold signal enhancements and a limit of detection of 20.1 pg/ml, whereas use of secondary antibody-25 nm gold complexes provided more signal enhancement (13-fold) and a further improvement in limit of detection of 8.6 pg/ml.

Cortisol alters gene expression during involution of the rat ventral prostate

The ability of high doses of cortisol to retard the involution process in the rat ventral prostate was related to alterations in the pattern of gene expression. Poly(A)+ RNA preparations from the prostates of noncastrated, castrated, and castrated rats injected daily for 7 days with cortisol were compared by Northern blot hybridizations for the relative expression of genes associated with cell differentiation and maintenance (the C1 prostatic steroid binding protein gene and alpha-tubulin), with cell death (TRPM-2, hsp 70, and c-fos), and with hormone regulation (the androgen and glucocorticoid receptors). As anticipated, the concentration of C1 mRNA in the prostate fell to less than 4% of that in the noncastrated controls within 4 days after castration and was nearly undetectable after 7 days. This decline was retarded by cortisol treatment of 7-day castrated animals which sustained the level of C1 transcripts at approximately 50% of control. While the pattern of expression of alpha-tubulin indicated some minor fluctuations, with the highest level occurring 7 days after castration, the prostates of the cortisol-treated group had essentially the same concentration of this mRNA as the noncastrates. Cortisol also modified the expression of genes associated with prostatic cell death. The large increase in prostatic TRPM-2 mRNA, seen 7 days after castration, was reduced by over 80% after treatment with the glucocorticoid. Although not as abundantly expressed as TRPM-2, the castration-induced levels of transcripts for both hsp 70 and the protooncogene c-fos were substantially reduced by cortisol.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Evaluation of progesterone-ovalbumin conjugates with different length linkers in enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay and surface plasmon resonance-based immunoassay

A series of progesterone-4-ovalbumin (OVA) conjugates with different length linkers (4-, 11-, and 18-atoms long) were synthesized by successive aminocaproic acid homologation of 3-(pregn-4-ene-3,20-dione-4-yl)thiopropanoic acid (1) before conjugation to ovalbumin. The performance studies of these progesterone-4-ovalbumin conjugates showed that the effects of the length of linker on the antibody binding are dependent upon different immunoassay formats. In a rapid flow biosensor surface, on a BIAcore Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) instrument, antibody-binding capacities and response rate were dramatically increased for progesterone-4-ovalbumin conjugates when the length of the linker was incremented from 4 atoms to 11 or 18 atoms. Thus, highly sensitive SPR-based immunoassays for progesterone over a range of 0.1-50 ng ml(-1) were developed using biosensor surfaces immobilized with progesterone-ovalbumin conjugates having extended linkers. The SPR-based assays were fully competitive with conventional enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA) but much more rapid and simple. However, there were little changes in antibody-binding performance using a conventional ELISA for the same conjugates. The progesterone-4-ovalbumin conjugate (1-OVA) had better antibody binding than its progesterone-7alpha-ovalbumin analog (2-OVA) in the SPR-based assay, but with a conventional ELISA there was no significant difference between these two isomeric conjugates.

Estrogen conjugation and antibody binding interactions in surface plasmon resonance biosensing

Thioether-linked 3-mercaptopropionic acid derivatives of 17beta-estradiol and estrone were formed at the A-ring 4-position of the steroids by substitution of their 4-bromo analogues. The carboxylic acid terminal was used to link to an oligoethylene glycol (OEG) chain of 15-atoms in length. The OEG derivative of 17beta-estradiol was then in situ immobilized on a carboxymethylated dextran-coated gold sensor surface used to detect refractive index changes upon protein binding to the surface by surface plasmon propagation in a BIAcore surface plasmon resonance (SPR) instrument. Two other estradiol-OEG derivatives with Mannich reaction linkage at the 2-position and hemisuccinate linkage at the 3-position were also immobilized on the sensor surfaces for comparison. Binding performance between these immobilized different positional conjugates and monoclonal anti-estradiol antibody, raised from a 6-position conjugate, clearly demonstrated that both 2- and 4-conjugates, not conjugated through existing functional groups, gave strong antibody bindings, whereas the 3-conjugate through an existing functional group (3-OH) gave very little binding (2% compared to the 2-conjugate). Both 2- and 4-position conjugates were then applied in a highly sensitive estradiol SPR immunoassay with secondary antibody mediated signal enhancement that gave up to a 9.5-fold signal enhancement of primary antibody binding, and a detection limit of 25 pg/mL was achieved for a rapid and convenient flow-through immunoassay of estradiol.

Catalysis by aromatic aldehydes and carbon dioxide of the hydrolysis of the p-nitrophenyl esters of L-leucine, glycine, and L-β-phenylalanine

The aromatic aldehyde and bicarbonate catalysed hydrolyses of the p-nitro-phenyl esters of L-leucine, glycine, and L-β-phenylalanine have been studied over a range of pH. The pH-rate profile for bicarbonate catalysis indicates that carbon dioxide is the active carbonate species, which presumably reacts with the substrates to give the carbamic acid, which hydrolyses by intramolecular nucleophilic participation by the carboxylate group. In the case of the aldehyde catalysis, aldehydes containing electron withdrawing groups in the aromatic ring are more effective than those with electron donating groups. The pH-rate profile for the catalysed reactions indicates attack by the free amino group of the ester on the aldehyde. The active species in the reaction is probably a carbinolamine, with the ester group undergoing hydrolysis with intramolecular nucleophilic participation by the hydroxyl group. The kinetics are consistent with the view that decomposition of the carbinolamine intermediate is rate-determining.

Synthesis of 2', 6'-Dihydroxychalcones by Using Tetrahydropyran-2-yl and Trialkylsilyl Protective Groups; the Crystal Structure Determination of 2',6'-Dihydroxy-2,4,6-trimethoxychalcone

Two improved general routes to 2′,6′-dihydroxychalcones are described in which the final step is protective-group removal from O 2′ under mild acid conditions. The first involves base-catalysed condensation of benzaldehydes with 2′-hydroxy-6′-tetrahydropyran-2-yloxyacetophenone, the second ring-opening of 5-hydroxyflavanones with 1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene in the presence of a trialkylchlorosilane to trap out the chalcone as a bis silyl ether. Chalcones prepared by the first route are 2',6'-dihydroxychalcone (1), and its 4-methoxy (2), 3,4-dimethoxy (3), 3,4,5-trimethoxy (4), and 2,4,6-trimethoxy (5) derivatives. The 4-chloro derivative (6) and the chalcone from hesperetin are prepared by the second method. .The X-ray crystal structure of 2',6'-dihydroxy-2,4,6-trimethoxychalcone (5), the first for a 2',6′-dihydroxychalcone, is reported, the hydrogen involved in intramolecular hydrogen-bonding between the carbonyl and phenolic oxygens being located for the first time for any 2'-hydroxychalcone derivative. The O 6' involved in the intramolecular hydrogen-bonding is also hydrogen-bonded intermolecularly to the hydrogen of the other (2'-)hydroxy group of a neighbouring molecule in the lattice. 13C n.m.r. data are the first reported for a series of 2',6'-dihydroxychalcones.