Abstract
The specificity and sensitivity of hapten immunoassays, especially enzyme immunoassay for steroids, are described. In the production of antibodies to a steroid, the steroid portion of a haptenized immunogen binds to specific surface receptors of B lymphocytes, resulting in the proliferation and differentiation of the cells into plasma cells which secrete anti-steroid antibodies having the same antigen-recognition specificity as that of the receptor. Thus, the available specificities of antisteroid antibodies should be influenced by the position on the steroid molecule used for conjugation to a carrier protein and also by the stereochemistry of the steroid hapten. Various factors influencing the assay specificity or sensitivity are summarized: these are antibody nature, label enzyme, method of determining enzyme activity, enzyme labeling method, steroid/enzyme molar ratio in the label, and bridging phenomenon.
Production of monoclonal anti-steroid antibodies and development of new biotechnologies related to the modification of antibody specificity are also described.
