• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.1-12
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• 2001

A competitive indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ci ELISA) for the organophosphorus insecticide acephate, O,S-dimethyl acetylphosphoramidothioate, was developed using a polyclonal antibody. Three different haptens mimicking the analyze and containing hexanoic acid moiety as a linker were synthesized, and then conjugated with the carrier proteins bovine serum albumin and keyhole limpet hemocyanin by the N-hydroxysuccinimide active ester method. Polyclonal antibodies raised against hapten-KLH conjugates in rabbits and the hapten-BSA conjugates as coating antigens were screened and selected for the assay in the homologous and/or heterologous ELISA system. The effects of various assay conditions, including blocking reagents, detergent content, organic solvents, pH, and preincubation of tile mixture of the polyclonal antibody and the analyze on the sensitivity were evaluated. The $IC_{50}$ value of acephate of 110 ng/mL was obtained in an optimized heterologous system using hapten-3-BSA as a coating antigen and a polyclonal antibody 8377, showing the detection range of 10-1000 ng/mL and the lowest detection limit of 4 ng/mL. The cross-reactivities of the structurally related insecticides, including methamidophos were less than 0.02%. These results indicate that the ELISA could be a convenient and alternative tool for monitoring acephate residues in agricultural products and environmental samples.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.7-17
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• 1985

Many investigators have been pursuing various attempts so far to produce hepatitis B surface antigen(HBsAg) vaccines using the techniques such as isolation from plasma of chronic HBsAg carrier, recombinant DNA technique or preparation of synthetic peptides specific for immunogenic determinants. Hepatitis B virus can not grow on any cell lines by the tissue culture technique at the present time. The plasma of chronic HBsAg carrier is expensive and its source is limited. The HBsAg from the recombinant DNA technique gave still very low yield. Another approach, therefore, has been initiated to develop a synthetic hepatitis B virus vaccine. The possible use of several distinct synthetic vaccines in prophylaxis can be facilitated by availability of full synthetic immunogens. Peptides synthesized for potential application as antiviral vaccines have been mostly tested in the form of conjugates with carrier proteins, although the free synthetic peptide can be immunogenic. To understand basic knowledges on the antigenicity and immunogenicity of a synthetic peptide specific for major immunogenic determinant of HBsAg, a nonapeptide, $H_2N^{139}Cys-Thr-Lys-Pro-Thr-Asp-Gly-^{146}Asn-Aba$ COOH, which corresponds to HBsAg amino acid residues 139 to 147, was synthesized by the Merrifield's solid-phase method with a slight modification. The antigenicity and immunogenicity of this specific synthetic peptide were examined comparing with purified plasma-derived natural HBsAg. The results obtained are as follows; 1. The peptide synthesized showed the identical amino acid composition to the theoretical value. The degree of purification and molecular weight were acertained by methods of high performance liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. 2. Using m-maleimidobenzoyl-N-hydroxysuccinimide ester as a conjugating agent, the synthetic peptide was conjugated to rabbit albumin and ${\gamma}$-globulin, tetanus and diphtheria toxoids, and keyhole limpet hemocyanin. Their conjugation yields were 8.3, 9.5, 15.8, 13.5, and 11.2%, respectively. 3. The natural HBsAg was purified from plasma of chronic HBsAg carrier. By the electron microscopic observation of the purified natural HBsAg preparation, no Dane particles were observed and the preparation showed negative DNA polymerase activity. 4. Antigenicity of the synthetic peptide and the plasma-derived natural HBsAg was determined by competition radioimmunoassay using $^{125}I$-natural HBsAg. Their 50% inhibitions appeared as $90{\mu}g/ml$ and $0.12{\mu}g/ml$ for the synthetic peptide and the natural HBsAg, respectively. This indicates that the former was about 750-fold less antigenic than the latter. 5. Immunogenicity of the synthetic peptide was determined by administering the peptide-carrier conjugates into rabbits with and without Freund's complete adjuvant. Regardless the carrier proteins and adjuvant, positive immune responses to the synthetic peptide were observed. The higher antibody titers, however, were shown in the groups administered with Freund's complete adjuvant. 6. Immunizing dose 50% in mice of the various peptide-carrier conjugates was 5.47, 6.00, 65.16, 31.25 and $13.03{\mu}g/dose$ for rabbit albumin and ${\gamma}$-globulin, tetanus and diphtheria toxoids, and keyhole limpet hemocyanin, respectively, while the natural HBsAg showed $0.65{\mu}g/dose$. 7. It was postulated that homologous proteins prefer to heterologous ones as the carriers.