Characterization and optimization of heroin hapten-BSA conjugates: method development for the synthesis of reproducible hapten-based vaccines.

A potential new treatment for drug addiction is immunization with vaccines that induce antibodies that can abrogate the addictive effects of the drug of abuse. One of the challenges in the development of a vaccine against drugs of abuse is the availability of an optimum procedure that gives reproducible and high yielding hapten-protein conjugates. In this study, a heroin/morphine surrogate hapten (MorHap) was coupled to bovine serum albumin (BSA) using maleimide-thiol chemistry. MorHap-BSA conjugates with 3, 5, 10, 15, 22, 28, and 34 haptens were obtained using different linker and hapten ratios. Using this optimized procedure, MorHap-BSA conjugates were synthesized with highly reproducible results and in high yields. The number of haptens attached to BSA was compared by 2,4,6-trinitrobenzenesulfonic acid (TNBS) assay, modified Ellman's test and matrix assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). Among the three methods, MALDI-TOF MS discriminated subtle differences in hapten density. The effect of hapten density on enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) performance was evaluated with seven MorHap-BSA conjugates of varying hapten densities, which were used as coating antigens. The highest antibody binding was obtained with MorHap-BSA conjugates containing 3-5 haptens. This is the first report that rigorously analyzes, optimizes and characterizes the conjugation of haptens to proteins that can be used for vaccines against drugs of abuse. The effect of hapten density on the ELISA detection of antibodies against haptens demonstrates the importance of careful characterization of the hapten density by the analytical techniques described.

Analysis of tissue proteomes of the Gulf killifish, Fundulus grandis, by 2D electrophoresis and MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometry.

The Gulf killifish, Fundulus grandis, is a small teleost fish that inhabits marshes of the Gulf of Mexico and demonstrates high tolerance of environmental variation, making it an excellent subject for the study of physiological and molecular adaptations to environmental stress. In the present study, two-dimensional (2D) gel electrophoresis and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry were used to resolve and identify proteins from five tissues: skeletal muscle, liver, brain, heart, and gill. Of 864 protein features excised from 2D gels, 424 proteins were identified, corresponding to a 49% identification rate. For any given tissue, several protein features were identified as the same protein, resulting in a total of 254 nonredundant proteins. These nonredundant proteins were categorized into a total of 11 molecular functions, including catalytic activity, structural molecule, binding, and transport. In all tissues, catalytic activity and binding were the most highly represented molecular functions. Comparing across the tissues, proteome coverage was lowest in skeletal muscle, due to a combination of a low number of gel spots excised for analysis and a high redundancy of identifications among these spots. Nevertheless, the identification of a substantial number of proteins with high statistical confidence from other tissues suggests that F. grandis may serve as a model fish for future studies of environmental proteomics and ultimately help to elucidate proteomic responses of fish and other vertebrates to environmental stress.