Particle-stabilized epitopes for standardization and control of immunoassays

Abstract

The invention relates to a process for preparing standards and controls for immunoassays employing monoclonal antibodies. Monoclonal antibodies are used to isolate a restricted portion of an antigen containing an epitope that determines the specificity of the monoclonal antibody-antigen reaction so as to distinguish it from the antigen as a whole, following fragmentation of the complex antigen by procedures including proteolysis. Isolated epitopes are attached covalently or by physical adsorption to particles to immobilize and stabilize the epitope. The particles can be composed of iodipamide ethyl ester, polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene and other inert substances and can be chemically activated to improve epitope binding and stability. Experimental details demonstrate the binding of lipoprotein epitopes to IDE, polyvinyl chloride and polystyrene and the subsequent reaction of monoclonal antibodies to these particle-stabilized epitopes. This invention is useful particularly for measuring the lipoprotein components associated with cholesterol, and includes a monoclonal based immunoassay kit for measuring the lipoprotein components in biological fluids to assess risk related to coronary artery disease complications.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.