Polarisation fluoroimmunoassay for quinine in serum and urine.

ABSTRACT

The development and validation of a polarisation fluoroimmunoassay for the antimalarial drug quinine is described. The assay is performed either by sequential addition of the reagents or by a single-reagent technique whereby the tracer and antibodies are premixed. Serum samples require pepsin digestion prior to assay while urine specimens are assayed directly. The reliability criteria of the assay are satisfactory and no cross-reaction is detected with quinidine (the optical isomer of quinine) or with common antimalarial drugs. The assay was applied to the measurement of quinine in urine specimens obtained from a single-dose pharmacokinetic study and the results correlated with those of the benzene extraction fluorescence method for quinine measurement.