Patent ID: 12259381

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In one embodiment a hapten trap is added in the reagent formulation to remove the interfering hapten without the involvement of the assay components that generate assay signal.

The hapten trap may be a soluble or solid cage. If the trap has pores it should have pore sizes that only allow free biotin to enter the pores, but not allow large molecules such as the biotin-antibody to enter. Alternatively, or in addition the trap can be charged so that the haptens are drawn to the cage. The interior of the cage should be able to trap the interfering hapten molecules (biotin or fluorescein) either by hydrogen binding, hydrophobic interactions or molecular imprint, such as specific binding partners.

The molecular cages thus trap interfering hapten molecules, but not hapten-Ab conjugate to effectively reduce the hapten's accessibility to their binding partners in assay components.

Examples of molecular cages are cyclodextrins. The cyclodextrin may be chemically modified to better exclude hapten-conjugates. Other examples may involve synthesizing solid (buoyant) support or soluble complexes with inner-surface coated with aptamers, avidin, streptavidin or anti-FITC antibodies solid support (buoyant) or soluble complexes. This solid support or complexes should have molecular size exclusion small enough that allows only the target hapten to enter the cage but not large biotinylated antibodies. SeeFIG.1.

Accordingly, the invention is a molecular trap to reduce free-hapten interference in an assay, the molecular trap comprising:a molecular cage that comprises a shell that surrounds a cavity having characteristics to selectively capture and retain a hapten that is unconjugated or free in an assay solution. The shell of the molecular cage may be selected from the group consisting of a cyclodextrin shell and a molecular-imprint-specific binding partner shell for the hapten. In a particular embodiment the characteristics of the shell may have a selective permeability to the free-hapten or be a selective deterrent for the relatively larger assay components, such as an assay conjugate of the happen, or the shell may be a combination of both characteristics.

In some embodiments the molecular cage further comprises a coating on the shell, the coating being selectively permeable to the free-hapten and impermeable to relatively larger assay components present in the assay solution. The relatively larger assay components may include an assay-conjugate of the hapten, an assay specific binding partner (sbp) for the hapten, an assay-conjugate of the sbp, and other assay molecules of greater than about 1000 Daltons molecular weight or more preferably greater than about 2000 Dalton molecular weight. In some embodiments the coating comprises one or more of bovine serum albumin, dextran aldehyde, amino dextran, and an ionically charged moiety.

In some embodiments the cavity characteristics of the molecular cage comprises one or both of moieties with selective interaction with the free-hapten and a cavity size dimension conducive to selectively receive and retain the free-hapten and to preferentially exclude assay molecules greater than about 1000 Daltons molecular weight present in the assay solution or more preferably greater than about 2000 Daltons molecular weight. The cavity may comprise internal specific-binding moieties to selectively retain the received free-hapten. The cavity characteristics may comprise one or both of a cavity opening limited in size to selectively receive the free-hapten and to preferentially exclude assay molecules greater than about 1000 Daltons molecular weight present in the assay solution and an internal cavity interaction with the free-hapten comprising one or more of hydrogen-bonding, van der Waal forces, polar bonding, hydrophilic interaction, hydrophobic interaction, ionic attraction, lock-and-key interaction.

Typically the free-hapten in the assay solution is about one-tenth of a molecular weight of assay-conjugates of the hapten present in the assay solution, the cavity characteristics of the molecular cage comprising a cavity opening with a molecular weight exclusion limit at greater than the molecular weight of the free-hapten, and an internal cavity moiety with selective interaction with the free-hapten.

The shell may be a cyclodextrin shell with the cyclodextrin selected from the group consisting of alpha-cyclodextrin, beta-cyclodextrin and gamma-cyclodextrin.

The free-hapten may be selected from the group consisting of free-biotin and free-fluorescein. The specific binding partner to biotin of the molecular-imprint-specific binding partner shell may comprise one or more of streptavidin, avidin and traptavidin. If the free-hapten is free-fluorescein, the specific binding partner to fluorescein of the molecular-imprint-specific binding partner shell comprises anti-fluorescein antibody.

In another embodiment the hapten trap is added in the reagent formulation to minimize the interfering hapten from its binding partner without the involvement of the assay components that generate assay signal and without generating extra absorbance that may interfere with true assay signal.

The trap may have the following features:a) It is not a particle or solid phase agent but soluble molecular structures in aqueous solution.b) It should only bind to free hapten but not to large molecules such as hapten-Ab conjugates.
Features described in a) and b) are sufficient to constitute a molecular hapten trap. Alternatively the following features are also deemed sufficient for the molecular hapten trap:c) It has a slower off-rate for binding so that the bound hapten is practically locked in place. The advantage of this feature is that the trapped (or locked-in biotin) will not easily dissociate and compete with conjugated hapten for the assay signal generating hapten binding partner.d) It should have a slower on-rate for binding so that the conjugated hapten will preferentially bind to assay signal generating hapten binding partner.
Molecular Hapten traps can sufficiently work with either features a) and b) or with features c) and d) alone or in combination.

Taking biotin-avidin (or streptavidin) as example, avidin or streptavidin can be chemically decorated with dexal or other spacer molecules via covalent bounds to form a surface layer that is only permeable to free biotin, but not to biotin moiety of the biotinylated antibody. Traptavidin is such a molecule that has ½ the on-rate and 1/10 the off-rate for biotin binding, making it a good biotin trap by pre-incubating with the biotin containing sample. One proposed assay example for LOCI PCT assay is as follows:1) Incubate biotin containing sample with capture Ab coated chemibeads reagent that contains a soluble molecular biotin trap (for example, dexal-decorated streptavidin or traptavidin or un-decorated traptavidin). Free biotin in the sample will bind to the biotin trap.2) Add biotinylated antibodies followed by streptavidin coated sensibeads. If native (un-decorated) traptavidin is used in step 1), streptavidin coated sensibeads will need to be added soon after the addition of biotinylated antibodies. This is to make sure biotinylated antibody preferentially bind to streptavidin coated on the sensibeads, not to traptavidin which has a slower on rate than streptavidin for biotin binding. If surface-decorated traptavidin that doesn't bind to conjugated biotin is used, the bound free biotin molecules from sample will not compete with biotinylated antibody for binding to streptavidin-sensibeads because they are locked in traptavidin molecules.

The field of medical diagnostics utilizes many different forms of assay technologies. One example of a commercially used assay is the Luminescent Oxygen Channeling Assay (LOCI®) technology. The LOCI® advanced chemiluminescence assay is described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,340,716 (Ullman et al.), the entire contents of which are expressly incorporated herein by reference. The currently available LOCI® technology has high sensitivity and uses several reagents. In particular, the LOCI® assay requires that two of these reagents (referred to as a “sensibead” and a “chemibead”) be held by other specific binding partner assay reagents in a manner whereby the sensibead and chemibead are in close proximity to one another to achieve a signal. Upon exposure to light at a certain wavelength, the sensibead releases singlet oxygen, and if the two beads are in close proximity, the singlet oxygen is transferred to the chemibead; this causes a chemical reaction that results in the chemibead giving off light that can be measured at a different wavelength.

Particular, non-limiting examples of chemiluminescent compounds and photosensitizers that may be utilized in accordance with the present disclosure are set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 5,340,716 (Ullman, et al.), the entire contents of which are hereby expressly incorporated herein by reference.

Accordingly, the invention comprises a molecular trap to reduce free-hapten interference in an assay, the molecular trap comprising:a molecular structure soluble in an assay solution to selectively bind free-hapten, the molecular structure comprising a modified specific binding partner (sbp) to the free-hapten. The modified sbp comprises one or more of a dextran aldehyde component, a bound steric-hindering polymer, and slower specific free-hapten binding off-rate characteristics than other free-hapten specific binding partners (sbps) assay reagents.

Such molecular structure may further comprise a coating, the coating comprising one or more of a selectively permeable material for the free-hapten, an ionic charge to one or both of attract the free-hapten and repel other assay molecules in the assay solution, and a polarity to facilitate one or both of selective retention of the free-hapten and steric repellence of the other assay molecules in the assay solution.

The coating may comprise one or more of proteins or peptides such as bovine serum albumin, polymers such as dextran aldehyde or amino dextran, compounds such as ethylenediamine, tetra-ethylene penta-amine, an ionically charged moiety, hydrophobic moiety (sulfo-N-hydroxy succinimide acetate) etc. The specific free-hapten binding off-rate characteristic of the modified sbp is slower than the specific free-hapten binding on-rate characteristic of the modified sbp.

In some embodiments the free-hapten is free-biotin, the modified sbp is traptavidin having the slower specific free-hapten binding off-rate than other free-hapten sbps in the assay solution, the other free-hapten sbps in the assay solution being selected from streptavidin and avidin.

The modified sbp may comprise one or both of a dextran aldehyde component and a steric-hindering polymer that selectively impede binding with assay components and assay-conjugates in the assay solution and that are relatively larger than the free-hapten.

In some embodiments, the free-hapten in the assay solution is selected from the group consisting of free-biotin and free-fluorescein, wherein the modified sbp to free-biotin is one of a modified streptavidin, a modified avidin, and a traptavidin and wherein the modified sbp to free-fluorescein is a modified anti-fluorescein.

The modified sbp may be a genetically engineered sbp comprising the steric-hindering polymer conjugated to an amino acid of the modified sbp adjacent to a specific binding site for the free-hapten, the steric-hindering polymer hinders specific binding of hapten-assay conjugates corresponding to the free-hapten.

The steric-hindering polymer is selected from the group consisting of amino dextran and bovine serum albumin.

The hapten-assay conjugates are selected from a group consisting of one or more of hapten-antibody conjugates, hapten-antigen conjugates, hapten-labeling enzyme conjugates, hapten-analyte-under-test conjugates, hapten-label conjugates, and hapten-receptor conjugates.

Creating hapten trap at the molecular level that is soluble in aqueous reaction mixture should allow much wider applications than hapten trap particles. The biotin lock-in mechanism given by traptavidin-like molecules greatly reduces the chance for free biotin to dissociate from the hapten trap and compete for sensibeads binding with biotinylated antibodies. Third is that slower binding to traptavidin allows biotinylated antibodies preferentially bind to the sensibeads in case native (un-decorated) traptavidin is used.

In yet another embodiment the hapten trap is a genetically engineered hapten binding protein (free hapten trap). The genetically engineered hapten trap is added in the reagent formulation to take away the interfering free hapten from its binding partner without the involvement of the assay components that generate assay signal and without generating extra absorbance that may interference with assay signal. Preparing the hapten trap involves the following:a) site directed mutagenesis changes an amino-acid residue(s) near the biotin binding site, allowing conjugation of another protein or polymer near the binding site to provide steric hindrance for large biotinylated antibody but not smaller free hapten to enter the binding sitesb) other genetic engineering techniques produce similar mutation as a)c) Genetically engineered streptavidin still binds to free biotin with high affinity.d) Conjugate a protein (such as BSA) or polymer to the engineered streptavidin to complete the making of the free biotin trap.e) Genetically engineered by site directed mutagenesis change one amino-acid residue to a unique amino acid that is not in the current sequence. For example, change an amino acid residue on the connection sections between {37-{37, {35-{36, or {33-{34 (seeFIG.2) to Methionine (Met or M). Because the mutation is near the binding site, conjugating a protein using SMCC (maleimide chemistry) and/or other polymers will provide steric hindrance for biotinylated antibody reagent (seeFIG.3).

Accordingly, the invention comprises a molecular trap to reduce free-hapten interference in an assay, the molecular trap comprising a molecular complex soluble in an assay solution to selectively provide free-hapten competitive specific binding in the molecular complex. The molecular complex comprises a conjugate that comprises a hapten-analog, a steric-hindering polymer that is relatively larger than the hapten-analog, and a linking group to provide a flexible linker connection between the hapten-analog and the steric-hindering polymer; and, in addition an anti-hapten specific binding partner (sbp) interconnected with the conjugate. The hapten-analog having weaker specific binding characteristics to the anti-hapten sbp than free-hapten, the flexible linker connection providing a degree of freedom between the hapten-analog and a specific binding site on the anti-hapten sbp for hapten, the steric-hindering polymer preventing hapten-assay conjugates in the assay solution from accessing the specific binding site.

In the above molecular trap, the hapten may be biotin, the hapten-analog is selected from the group of 4′-hydroxyazobenzene-2-carboxylic acid (HABA) and 2-imino biotin, and the anti-hapten sbp being selected from streptavidin, avidin and traptavidin.

The weaker specific binding characteristics of the hapten-analog relative to the free-hapten may comprise a pH-dependent specific binding. The steric-hindering polymer of the molecular trap may be selected from proteins or peptides such as bovine serum albumin, polymers such as dextran aldehyde or amino dextran, compounds such as ethylenediamine, tetra-ethylene penta-amine, an ionically charged moiety, or hydrophobic moieties such as sulfo-N-hydroxy succinimide acetate.

The present invention includes a method of reducing interference by free-hapten in an assay, the method comprising:combining assay components and a patient sample having an analyte-under-test and excess free-hapten to form an assay solution, the assay components comprising a specific binding pair including a hapten and a relatively larger anti-hapten, assay-conjugates of each of the hapten and the anti-hapten, and a molecular trap selective for the free-hapten; andselectively retaining the free-hapten in the assay solution with the molecular trap,wherein the molecular trap comprises one or a mixture of a molecular cage having a shell surrounding a cavity, a molecular complex, and a molecular structure comprising a modified anti-hapten specific binding partner (sbp), the modified anti-hapten sbp comprising one or more of a dextran aldehyde component, a bound steric-hindering polymer, and specific free-hapten binding off-rate characteristics that are slower than other anti-hapten specific binding partners (sbps) assay components.

In such method the specific free-hapten binding off-rate characteristic of the modified anti-hapten sbp is slower than the specific free-hapten binding on-rate characteristic of the modified anti-hapten sbp.

Further in such method, the molecular complex may be a hapten-analog conjugated with a steric-hindering polymer using a flexible linker and an anti-hapten sbp interconnected with the hapten-analog conjugate, the hapten-analog having same or weaker specific binding characteristics than the free-hapten to the anti-hapten sbp, the steric-hindering polymer preventing hapten-assay conjugates in the assay solution from accessing a specific hapten binding site on the anti-hapten sbp, and wherein the free-hapten in the assay solution preferably binds to the anti-hapten sbp specific binding site.

In such methods, the assay-conjugates of the hapten and the assay-conjugates of the anti-hapten are individually selected from the group of assay components consisting of an antibody, an antigen, an analyte-under-test, a label, a labeling enzyme, a receptor and a combination of two or more of the group.