An improved enzyme-linked immunoassay for the detection and quantification of the entomocidal parasporal crystal proteins of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki and israelensis.

An improved and simplified enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed for the detection and quantification of parasporal crystalline toxins from Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki. The improved procedure involved pretreatment of the polystyrene cuvettes with glutaraldehyde before antibody coating. A direct comparison of treated and untreated cuvettes is provided. ELISAs were then used for the analysis of the entomocidal crystalline proteins in commercial and experimental formulations of B. thuringiensis subspp. kurstaki and israelensis.

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays for detection and quantitation of the entomocidal parasporal crystalline protein of Bacillus thuringiensis subspp. kurstaki and israelensis.

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to detect and quantitate the parasporal crystal toxins of Bacillus thuringiensis subspp. kurstaki and israelensis. The assay method described is extremely sensitive, accurate, and highly specific. With this technique, crystalline insecticidal proteins from several subspecies of B. thuringiensis were compared. The dipteran crystal toxin produced by B. thuringiensis subsp. israelensis was shown to share few epitopes with the lepidopteran toxin from B. thuringiensis subspp. kurstaki, tolworthi, berliner, and alesti.

Rapid and sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the microsomal epoxide hydrolase.

A rapid and sensitive indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed for microsomal epoxide hydrolase of rat liver. The assay, which is easily and readily performed, is significantly more sensitive than most enzymatic epoxide hydrolase assays routinely used and electroimmunoassays previously developed. The limit of sensitivity of the ELISA is between 2-5 ng of microsomal epoxide hydrolase. Using the ELISA microsomal epoxide hydrolases of mouse and rat liver were shown to be antigenically very similar, while microsomal epoxide hydrolases of guinea pig, monkey and human liver are antigenically distinct from those of rat and mouse. The ELISA developed here is capable of detecting microsomal epoxide hydrolase of rat and mouse liver even when significant enzymatic activity is lost. These results indicate that the antigenic sites recognized by the antibodies used are distinct from the catalytic site of the epoxide hydrolase. Approximately 1.9% of rat microsomal protein was quantified as microsomal epoxide hydrolase by the ELISA. Low levels of microsomal epoxide hydrolase were also detected in rat liver cytosol (approximately 0.02% of the cytosolic protein) demonstrating that microsomal epoxide hydrolase is not totally membrane bound or that an immunologically related protein occurs in the cytosol of normal rat liver. The ELISA developed here will be valuable in investigating further the role of microsomal epoxide hydrolase.

Suppression of reaginic antibodies with modified allergens. III. Preparation of tolerogenic conjugates of common allergens with monomethoxypolyethylene glycols of different molecular weights by the mixed anhydride method.

Our previous findings that antigens, such as ovalbumin (OA) and the extract of ragweed pollen (RAG), could be rendered nonantigenic, nonallergenic and tolerogenic by conjugation with polyethylene glycol (PEG) have been extended in the present study to the synthesis of conjugates of a variety of antigens with monofunctional monomethoxy-PEGs (mPEGS) of different molecular weights by the use of the mixed anhydride method. Thus, mPEGs with molecular weights of 2,000, 5,000, 10,000 and 20,000 were coupled to proteins such as dog serum albumin (DA), bovine pancreatic ribonuclease, OA and the constituents of pollen, helminth and bacterial allergens (RAG, Timothy grass pollen, Ascaris suum and Micropolyspora faeni). All these mPEG conjugates depressed markedly the ongoing IgE antibody formation in sensitized animals, in spite of additional injections of the sensitizing dose of the appropriate antigen. Moreover, the allergenicity of the proteins was either totally abolished or markedly reduced after coupling to mPEGs. Conjugates of DA and OA of varying degree of substitution (i.e. number of mPEG molecules attached per protein molecule) were prepared with mPEGs of different molecular weights and their immunological properties were assessed. It appears that, for a series of tolerogenic conjugates of the same antigen, there exists some inverse relationship between the degree of substitution and the molecular weight of mPEG, i.e. a high level of tolerogenicity with a concomitant reduction or total loss of allergenicity was achieved with a lower degree of substitution utilizing mPEGs of increasing molecular weights. On the basis of these results, it is concluded that a variety of allergens may be converted by conjugation with mPEGs to tolerogenic products with a potential for use in the therapy of patients allergic to a wide spectrum of common allergens.

Characterization of the proteolytic fragments of bovine colostral IgG1.

Bovine colostral IgG1 was subjected to both papain and pepsin hydrolysis. Papain digestion appeared to be optimal at pH 7.4 in the presence of 0.01 M cysteine. The molecule was split at the COOH-terminal side of the interchain disulfide bond(s), and in addition to Fab fragments, two Fc fragments, designated Fc(I) and Fc(II), were obtained. Both Fc fragments had an identical NH2-terminal sequence, but differed in m.w. by about 10,000, with Fc(II) being the smaller one. Differences were also observed in their circular dichroism (CD) spectra and in their susceptibility to carboxypeptidase hydrolysis. These results suggested that the distinguishing characteristics of the two Fc fragments resided in the COOH-terminal parts of the molecules. Pepsin hydrolysis yielded the expected F(ab')2 and pFc' fragments. This hydrolysis was found to be dependent upon substrate concentration leading to aggregate formation at IgG1 concentrations below 3%.