Screening of dioxin-like compounds by complementary evaluation strategy utilising ELISA, micro-EROD, and HRGC-HRMS in soil and sediments from Montevideo, Uruguay.

Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDD) and dibenzofurans (PCDF) are persistent, toxic, and bioaccumulate in the environment. Due to their high analytical costs, these compounds are hardly regulated and mostly not monitored in the Third World. To overcome this, bioassays have been proposed as low-cost alternative methods. Two of the most established bioanalytical tools, the dioxin antibody-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay ELISA and the micro-EROD bioassay are evaluated and compared to high resolution gas chromatography and high resolution mass spectrometry (HRGC/HRMS) analytical methodology. The methods were tested using thirteen soils and sediment samples selected from diverse sites in Montevideo, Uruguay. The WHO2005 total toxic equivalent (WHO2005-TEQ) of soils ranged from 2.4 to 2212 (ng WHO2005-TEQ/kg dry sample) and from 0.14 to 9.4 (ng WHO2005-TEQ/kg dry sample) in sediments. This study shows significant contamination related to dioxin-like compounds, particularly in sites where uncontrolled burnings were carried out. ELISA and micro-EROD bioassay correlated well with HRGC/HRMS, R Spearman 0.773 and 0.913, respectively and were highly correlated to each other, R Spearman 0.879. Preliminary threshold values of bioassay toxic equivalents of 330 (ng/kg dry sample) for the micro-EROD bioassay and 220 (ng/kg dry sample) for ELISA are proposed.

Phage anti-immunocomplex assay for clomazone: two-site recognition increasing assay specificity and facilitating adaptation into an on-site format.

The impact of the use of herbicides in agriculture can be minimized by compliance with good management practices that reduce the amount used and their release into the environment. Simple tests that provide real time on-site information about these chemicals are a major aid for these programs. In this work, we show that phage anti-immunocomplex assay (PHAIA), a method that uses phage-borne peptides to detect the formation of antibody-analyte immunocomplexes, is an advantageous technology to produce such field tests. A monoclonal antibody to the herbicide clomazone was raised and used in the development of conventional competitive and noncompetitive PHAIA immunoassays. The sensitivity attained with the PHAIA format was over 10 times higher than that of the competitive format. The cross-reactivity of the two methods was also compared using structurally related compounds, and we observed that the two-site binding of PHAIA "double-checks" the recognition of the analyte, thereby increasing the assay specificity. The positive readout of the noncompetitive PHAIA method allowed adaptation of the assay into a rapid and simple format where as little as 0.4 ng/mL clomazone (more than 10-fold lower than the proposed standard) in water samples from a rice field could be easily detected by simple visual inspection.

High-throughput method for ranking the affinity of peptide ligands selected from phage display libraries.

The use of phage display peptide libraries allows rapid isolation of peptide ligands for any target selector molecule. However, due to differences in peptide expression and the heterogeneity of the phage preparations, there is no easy way to compare the binding properties of the selected clones, which operates as a major "bottleneck" of the technology. Here, we present the development of a new type of library that allows rapid comparison of the relative affinity of the selected peptides in a high-throughput screening format. As a model system, a phage display peptide library constructed on a phagemid vector that contains the bacterial alkaline phosphatase gene (BAP) was selected with an antiherbicide antibody. Due to the intrinsic switching capacity of the library, the selected peptides were transferred "en masse" from the phage coat protein to BAP. This was coupled to an optimized affinity ELISA where normalized amounts of the peptide-BAP fusion allow direct comparison of the binding properties of hundreds of peptide ligands. The system was validated by plasmon surface resonance experiments using synthetic peptides, showing that the method discriminates among the affinities of the peptides within 3 orders of magnitude. In addition, the peptide-BAP protein can find direct application as a tracer reagent.

Polyclonal antibody-based noncompetitive immunoassay for small analytes developed with short peptide loops isolated from phage libraries.

To date, there are a few technologies for the development of noncompetitive immunoassays for small molecules, the most common of which relies on the use of anti-immunocomplex antibodies. This approach is laborious, case specific, and relies upon monoclonal antibody technology for its implementation. We recently demonstrated that, in the case of monoclonal antibody-based immunoassays, short peptide loops isolated from phage display libraries can be used as substitutes of the anti-immunocomplex antibodies for noncompetitive immunodetection of small molecules. The aim of this work was to demonstrate that such phage ligands can be isolated even when the selector antibodies are polyclonal in nature. Using phenoxybenzoic acid (PBA), a major pyrethroid metabolite, as a model system, we isolated the CFNGKDWLYC peptide after panning a cyclic peptide library on the PBA/anti-PBA immunocomplex. The sensitivity of the noncompetitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) setup with this peptide was 5-fold (heterologous) or 400-fold (homologous) higher than that of the competitive assay setup with the same antibody. Phage anti-immunocomplex assay (PHAIA) was also easily adapted into a rapid and highly sensitive dipstick assay. The method not only provides a positive readout but also constitutes a major shortcut in the development of sensitive polyclonal-based assays, avoiding the need of synthesizing heterologous competing haptens.

Phage anti-immune complex assay: general strategy for noncompetitive immunodetection of small molecules.

Due to their size, small molecules cannot be simultaneously bound by two antibodies, precluding their detection by noncompetitive two-site immunoassays, which are superior to competitive ones in terms of sensitivity, kinetics, and working range. This has prompted the development of anti-immune complex antibodies, but these are difficult to produce, and often exhibit high cross-reactivity with the unliganded primary antibody. This work demonstrates that anti-immune complex antibodies can be substituted by phage particles isolated from phage display peptide libraries. Phages bearing specific small peptide loops allowed to focus the recognition to changes in the binding area of the immune complex. The concept was tested using environmental and drug analytes; with improved sensitivity and ready adaptation into on-site formats. Peptides specific for different immune complexes can be isolated from different peptide libraries in a simple and systematic fashion allowing the rapid development of noncompetitive assays for small molecules.

The immunogenicity of Echinococcus granulosus antigen 5 is determined by its post-translational modifications.

Since its early introduction as a marker for the immunodiagnosis of hydatid disease, antigen 5 (Ag5) has been regarded as one of the more relevant antigens of Echinococcus granulosus, and it is still widely used in different confirmation techniques. In this work we prepared 2 recombinant forms of the antigen, namely, rAg5 (corresponding to the unprocessed polypeptide chain of the antigen) and rAg5-38s (corresponding to its 38 kDa subunit). Their antigenicities were compared to that of the native antigen using a human serum collection. There was a major drop in the reactivity of the sera, particularly against rAg5-38s, which was confirmed by analysis of the cross-reactivity of 2 panels of monoclonal antibodies specific for rAg5-38s and the native antigen. Using the chemically deglycosylated native antigen, we demonstrated that the reduced antigenicity of the recombinants is due to the loss of the sugar determinants, and not to their misfolding. Inhibition experiments using phosphorylcholine confirmed that this moiety also contributes to the reactivity of the antigen, but to a much lesser extent. The presence of immunodominant highly cross-reactive glycan moieties in the Ag5 molecule may involve a parasite evasion mechanism.

A new addition to the structural bioinformatics toolbox: 3D models of short bioactive peptides from multiple sequences using feedback restrained molecular dynamics (FRMD).

Modem molecular biology techniques allow the use of new approaches for the 3D mapping of 1D information. Molecular biology techniques are capable of producing large amounts of 1D information (sequences) from a number of different sources (phage displays, ESTs, etc.). In this work, we present a technique that takes advantage of large sets of 1D information and increasingly available computer power to create 3D models. For the purpose of validation the technique is first applied to the modeling of an erythropoietin analog of known 3D structure from 1D information only. The technique is then used to model the immunoreactive region of echinococcus granulosus AgB based on phage raised mimotopes for which there is no previous structural information. The technique here presented is of general application to similar problems where 1D information is available and structure activity relationships (SAR) is needed.

Improved immunodiagnosis of cystic hydatid disease by using a synthetic peptide with higher diagnostic value than that of its parent protein, Echinococcus granulosus antigen B.

The assays are used for the diagnosis of hydatid disease are still imperfect. The reported diagnostic sensitivity and specificity vary greatly depending on the panel of sera used, the laboratory conducting the assay, and, more critically, the antigen used. To contribute to its standardization, we have recently ranked the diagnostic performances of the major parasite antigens and the available synthetic peptides using a large collection of serum samples. That work showed that antigen B (AgB) possesses the highest diagnostic value among these antigens. In the present work we further dissected its antigenicity by analyzing the reactivity of the same panel of sera against a set of synthetic peptides spanning the sequence of both AgB subunits. The N-terminal extension of these subunits appeared to be immunodominant in human infections. A 38-mer peptide (p176) delineated from the N-terminal extension of the AgB/1 subunit performed in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with a higher diagnostic sensitivity (80%) and specificity (94%) than native AgB, Ag5, or any other peptide antigen tested against this collection of serum samples. In view of its high diagnostic value and its nature as a well-defined reproducible antigen, p176 could conveniently be used as a reference standard antigen in the diagnosis of hydatid disease.