Immunoassays empolying generic anti-hapten antibodies and materials for use therein

An immunoassay method for detecting the presence or measuring the amount of an analyte (A) in a test sample comprising:

• a) exposing the test sample to a hapten-analyte (H-A) conjugate, an anti-hapten antibody, and a common antibody pool to form a reaction mixture, wherein said common antibody pool comprises (1) at least two antisera, one of said at least two antisera containing an antibody .alpha.A, the other of said at least two antisera containing an antibody .alpha.B, or (2) at least one antisera and at least one monoclonal antibody, said at least one antisera containing an antibody .alpha.A and said monoclonal antibody being antibody .alpha.B, or (3) at least two monoclonal antibodies, one of said at least two monoclonal antibodies being antibody .alpha.A, the other of said at least two monoclonal antibodies being antibody .alpha.B, wherein antibody .alpha.A and antibody .alpha.B have different binding specificities for analyte (A), one of which antibodies .alpha.A or .alpha.B is also able to cross-react with other substances that are structurally related to analyte (A), while the other antibody cannot cross-react with said substances;
• b) allowing the formation of complexes including (.alpha.H)(H-A)(.alpha.A), or (.alpha.H)(H-A)(.alpha.B), or (.alpha.H)(H-A)(.alpha.B)(.alpha.A), or combinations of the three;
• and
• c) detecting the presence or measuring the amount of any of (.alpha.H)(H-A)(.alpha.A), or (.alpha.H)(H-A)(.alpha.B) or (.alpha.H)(H-A)(.alpha.B)(.alpha.A), or combinations of the three in the absence or analyte (A);
• or the absence of (.alpha.H)(H-A)(.alpha.A), or (.alpha.H)(H-A)(.alpha.B), and (.alpha.H)(H-A)(.alpha.B)(.alpha.A) in the presence of analyte (A).