Immunoassay for thymopoietin
AssigneeSloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research
InventorGideon Goldstein
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An immunoassay for the polypeptidic thymic hormone thymopoietin (thymin) is described. Determination of thymopoietin levels in biological fluids provides a useful diagnostic test for myasthenia gravis (elevated levels), immune deficiency diseases (reduced levels), immunologically mediated diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus and allergy (reduced levels) cancer (reduced levels), malnutrition (reduced levels) and infections (reduced levels). The present assay is also useful as a monitor of the effectiveness of therapy in each of the aforementioned types of disease states.
Claims18
An antigen consisting essentially of thymopoietin covalently bonded to an immunogenic carrier material through a bifunctional linking group.
An antibody specific to thymopoietin and to an antigen consisting essentially of thymopoietin covalently bonded to an immunogenic carrier material through a bifunctional linking group said thymopoietin specific antibody being prepared by innoculating a host animal with the aforesaid antigen and collecting the serum from said host animal.
I.sup.125 -thymopoietin.
A method for the assay of thymopoietin in a sample, which method comprises mixing said sample with a known amount of labeled thymopoietin and an antibody which will selectively complex with said thymopoietin, separating the resulting antibody-antigen complex from the supernatant, measuring the degree of binding of the said labeled thymopoietin in said complex and determining the amount of thymopoietin present in said sample by comparing said degree of binding to a standard curve obtained by mixing known amounts of thymopoietin with fixed amounts of said labeled thymopoietin and said antibody and determining the degree of binding for each known amount of thymopoietin.
Labeled thymopoietin, wherein the label is selected from the group consisting of tritium, carbon.sup.14, iodine.sup.125, chromophores, fluorophors, enzymes, red blood cells, latex particles and electron spin resonance groups.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.