Acetal-functionalized polymer particles useful for immunoassays. III: Preparation of latex-protein complexes and their applications

Monodisperse polymer colloids with dimethyl and diethyl acetal functionalit ies synthesized by a two-step emulsion polymerization process were chosen a s the polymeric support to carry out covalent coupling with the antibody Ig G anti C-reactive protein, and to test the utility of the latex-protein com plexes formed in immunoassays with the specific CRP antigen. More than the 80% of the initially linked protein was covalently coupled in all of the la texes. The agglutination reaction was followed by turbidimetry. With the ai m of analyzing the effect of some of the variables of the immunological rea ction, the reaction time, the particle concentration and the coverage degre e of protein in the complexes were varied. (C) 2001 Kluwer Academic Publish ers.