ANTIGENICITY OF FULLERENES - ANTIBODIES SPECIFIC FOR FULLERENES AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS

The recent interest in using Buckminsterfullerene (fullerene) derivati ves in biological systems raises the possibility of their assay by imm unological procedures. This, in turn, leads to the question of the abi lity of these unprecedented polygonal structures, made up solely of ca rbon atoms, to induce the production of specific antibodies. Immunizat ion of mice with a C-60 fullerene derivative conjugated to bovine thyr oglobulin yielded a population of fullerene-specific antibodies of the IgG isotype, showing that the immune repertoire was diverse enough to recognize and process fullerenes as protein conjugates, The populatio n of antibodies included a subpopulation that crossreacted with a C-70 fullerene as determined by immune precipitation and ELISA procedures, These assays were made possible by the synthesis of water-soluble ful lerene derivatives, including bovine and rabbit serum albumin conjugat es and derivatives of trilysine and pentalysine, all of which were cha racterized as to the extent of substitution and their UV-Vis spectra. Possible interactions of fullerenes with the combining sites of IgG ar e discussed based on the physical chemistry of fullerenes and previous ly described protein-fullerene interactions. They remain to be confirm ed by the isolation of mAbs for x-ray crystallographic studies.