Evaluation of the concept of heterology in a monoclonal antibody-based ELISA utilizing direct hapten linkage to polystyrene microtiter plates

A series of new heterologous haptens has been synthesized and used as coating haptens in an antigen-immobilized immunoassay with a monoclonal antibody against atrazine. Coating was achieved by covalently linking the different haptens to a glutaraldehyde network directly bound to the polystyrene surface of a standard 96-well microtiter plate. With the assay designed in the antigen-immobilized format with direct chemical linkage of the hapten to the solid polystyrene surface well-defined hapten densities were achieved in all experiments. The results of different experiments with different coating haptens were comparable. Using different heterologous haptens it appears that the concept of heterology is applicable in this case and can be used to enhance the sensitivity of an immunoassay in the coating-hapten format.