Ready Access to Proquinazid Haptens via Cross-Coupling Chemistry for Antibody Generation and Immunoassay Development

PLoS One. 2015 Jul 27;10(7):e0134042. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0134042. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Bioconjugate preparation is a fundamental step for antibody generation and immunoassay development to small chemical compounds. For analytical targets holding in their structure an aryl halogen atom, cross-coupling reactions may be a simple and efficient way to obtain functionalized derivatives; thus offering great potential to elicit robust and selective immune responses after being coupled to immunogenic carrier proteins. However, substitution of the halogen atom by an aliphatic chain might eventually compromise the affinity and specificity of the resulting antibodies. In order to address this issue, proquinazid, a new-generation fungicide with outstanding performance, was chosen as model analyte. Two functionalized derivatives differing in spacer arm rigidity were synthesized by Sonogashira cross-coupling chemistry. These haptens were covalently coupled to bovine serum albumin and the resulting immunoconjugates were employed for rabbit vaccination. Antibodies were tested for proquinazid recognition by direct and indirect competitive immunoassay, and IC50 values in the low nanomolar range were found, thus demonstrating the suitability of this straightforward synthetic strategy for the generation of immunoreagents to compounds bearing an aryl halide. Following antibody characterization, competitive immunoassays were developed and employed to determine proquinazid residues in grape musts, and their analytical performance was satisfactorily validated by comparison with GC-MS. Besides having described the development of the first immunochemical method for proquinazid analysis, an efficient functionalization approach for analytes comprising aryl halides is reported.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antibodies* / chemistry
  • Antibodies* / immunology
  • Cattle
  • Haptens* / chemistry
  • Haptens* / immunology
  • Immunoassay / methods
  • Quinazolinones* / chemistry
  • Quinazolinones* / immunology
  • Rabbits
  • Serum Albumin, Bovine / chemistry
  • Serum Albumin, Bovine / immunology

Substances

  • Antibodies
  • Haptens
  • Quinazolinones
  • Serum Albumin, Bovine
  • proquinazid

Grants and funding

The work was supported by Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (AGL2012-39965-C02-01/02/ALI) and cofinanced by FEDER funds. FAET: JAE postdoctoral contract from Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación and the European Social Fund. JVM: Ramón y Cajal postdoctoral contract from Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación and the European Social Fund. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.