Human antibodies to the antineoplastic drug elliptinium: characterization and structure-activity relationships.

Immune-mediated hemolytic disease is a phenomenon rarely encountered with cancer chemotherapeutic agents. Elliptinium, a tetracyclic ammonium compound used in breast and kidney cancer, can induce antibodies that may result in clinical hemolysis. This study reports the characterization of the elliptinium haptenic determinant by use of two different methodologies: a hemagglutination test and a radioimmunoassay. Binding of 12 analogues or derivatives of elliptinium was also studied. Good correlation between the two methods was obtained, indicating that the determinant is most likely located on the quaternary ammonium-containing ring. Furthermore, the hydrophilicity of the drug appears to be an important factor in the antibody reaction. The mechanism of the binding of elliptinium to its antibodies is discussed.

Local adjuvants: the influence of sodium dodecylbenzene sulphonate on immunization with aerosolized antigen.

Guinea-pig respiratory and serum antibody responses were enhanced following exposure to aerosols of bovine IgG2 dissolved in solutions of sodium dodecylbenzene sulphate (SDBS). Enhanced response was seen in both primary and secondary immunization. Cell-mediated immune response (indirect macrophage migration influencing test) was not altered by SDBS. Results are discussed with a view to the possible utility of SDBS as adjuvant for prophylactic immunization.

[The significance of immunological constellation with regard to the development of hypersensitivity against various chemical compounds (author's transl)]. / Die Bedeutung der immunologischen Konstellation bei der Entwicklung einer Uberempfindlichkeit gegen verschiedene Chemikalien.

Biopon is a generally used detergent containing detergens which does not cause hypersensitivity as was demonstrated by the authors in previous animal experiments. In the present study the authors describe the Haptene character of Biopon which quality could be demonstrated by causing a certain immunological constellation in guinea-pigs on the grounds of a hypothesis. The hypothetical concept consisted in aiding a half-antigen in the organism even in the case of its intradermal injection into a thick immunocompetent cell agglomeration. The authors produced the agglomeration of cells of the skin by means of intradermal injections of alien serum and in with BCG treated animals with tuberculin reaction. Biopon was administered thereafter into the focus by intradermal injection. The presented two aiding methods showed different effects which the authors try to explain by the fact that different adjuvants cause different effects.

Lanolin with reduced sensitizing potential. A preliminary note.

The allergens of lanolin appear to lie in the content of natural free fatty alcohols rather than in the total alcohols as hitherto supposed. The detectable incidence of allergy is increased by the simultaneous presence of detergent. Amongst selected lanolin-sensitive skin patients, removal of both free fatty alcohols and detergent from lanolin reduces the incidence of detectable hypersensitivity by 96%. Methods are described for determining free fatty alcohols and detergent in lanolin, and for removing them.

RAST using crude and purified anti-IgE.

The sensitivity of the RAST using anti-IgE in 125I-labelled IgG fractions of sheep antiserum was compared to that using anti-IgE purified by immunosorbent techniques in tests with three allergens (grass pollens, Aspergillus fumigatus and the detergent enzyme "Alcalase") on sera from 248 workers in a detergent factory. Both anti-IgE reagents measure the same antibody but the RAST procedure using the crude anti-IgE reagent is less sensitive than that using the immunosorbent-purified anti-IgE in its ability to detect circulating IgE in subjects with positive skin-prick tests. In general the agreement between positive RAST and positive skin test was improved when only skin tests equal to or greater than 3 mm were considered positive. With Alcalase, antigen non-specific binding by the crude anti-IgE reagent may give false positive results. Optimal conditions for the preparation of allergosorbents with this allergen are defined. Predictive equations relating the results of RAST and skin test show that the hitherto arbitrary definition of a positive RAST result is statistically valid.

Prick- and radioallergsorbent tests (RAST) to Alcalase in a population not exposed to enzyme detergents.

A total of 301 persons in a population unexposed to enzyme detergents (Rumania) were prick-tested with Alcalase, and RASTs were performed on their sera. The material consisted of three groups, one atopic, the second non atopic, and the third healthy. In the first two groups the percentage of positive prick-test reactions amounted to 6 and 5% respectively. Only one positive RAST was found (second group). In the third group no positive prick-tests were found and no positive RASTs. The majority of the positive prick-tests were considered non specific, and no correlation was found between results of prick-tests and RASTs in this material of non exposed individuals.