The development of immunoassays for detection of chemical warfare agents

Conference · Tue Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1996

OSTI ID:370218

Lenz, D E; Brimfield, A A; Cook, L ^[1]

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1. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD (United States)

With the advent of enzyme linked immunoabsorbent assays (ELISA) and monoclonal antibodies in the last two decades, there has been considerable effort devoted to the development of antibodies to detect and quantify low molecular weight toxic substances in environmental or biological fluids. Polyclonal antibodies against paraoxon (the toxic metabolite of parathion) were capable of detecting paraoxon in body fluids at a level of 10{sup -9} M ({approximately}260 pg/mL) when used in a competitive inhibition enzyme immunoassay (CIEIA). Monoclonal antibodies developed against a structural analogue of the chemical warfare agent soman were capable of detection soman in buffer solutions at a level of 10{sup -6} M ({approximately}180 ng/mL). In addition these antibodies were found to be highly specific for soman even in the presence of its major hydrolysis product. Subsequent studies with antisoman monoclonal antibodies extended the level of sensitivity to {approximately}80 ng/mL. Furthermore these antibodies did not cross react with other chemical warfare nerve agents such as sarin or tabun. In all cases, the time for a confirmatory test was two hours or less. Immunoassays for T-2 micotoxins have also been reported with a minimal detection range of 2 pg/assay to 50 ng/assay for the polyclonal and monoclonal T-2 antibodies respectively. These reagents offer a sensitive, rapid and low cost approach to the diagnosis or detection of the presence of toxic chemical substances. More recent efforts have focussed on developing antibodies specific for sulfur mustard a highly reactive vesicating agent.

• OSTI ID: 370218
• Report Number(s): CONF-960376--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

40 CHEMISTRY
45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
BODY FLUIDS
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
CHEMICAL WARFARE AGENTS
DETECTION
ENZYME IMMUNOASSAY
MOLECULAR WEIGHT
MONOCLONAL ANTIBODIES
MYCOTOXINS
PARATHION
SENSITIVITY