SYNTHESIS OF HAPTENS AND DERIVATION OF MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODIES FOR IMMUNOASSAY OF THE PHENYLUREA HERBICIDE DIURON

Diuron and related phenylurea herbicides and their metabolites are imp ortant candidates for sensitive and specific immunodetection. This pap er describes a scheme for the synthesis of two different types of phen ylurea haptens for immunization and use as detecting conjugates in enz yme immunoassays (EIAs). The haptens were used to develop indirect and direct EIAs and to derive a-panel of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) wit h different specificities for diuron and its analogs. One of six possi ble combinations of hapten-spacer arm conjugates tested as immunizing and screening antigens resulted in an indirect competition EIA that wa s 100-2000-fold more sensitive than the others. The eight most sensiti ve MAbs had I-50 values of 2-20 ppb for diuron. These MAbs gave two di fferent patterns of cross-reactivities with monuron and linuron and ne gligible recognition of other arylurea herbicides. These MAbs and EIAs are potentially suitable for identification as well as detection of d iuron, monuron, and linuron.