Broad-Specificity Chemiluminescence Enzyme Immunoassay for (Fluoro)quinolones: Hapten Design and Molecular Modeling Study of Antibody Recognition

On the basis of the structural features of (fluoro)­quinolones (FQs), pazufloxacin was first used as a generic immunizing hapten to raise a broad-specificity antibody. The obtained polyclonal antibody exhibited broad cross-reactivity ranging from 5.19% to 478.77% with 21 FQs. Furthermore, the antibody was able to recognize these FQs below their maximum residue limits (MRLs) in an indirect competitive chemiluminescence enzyme immunoassay (ic-CLEIA), with the limit of detection (LOD) ranging from 0.10 to 33.83 ng/mL. For simply pretreated milk samples with spiked FQs, the ic-CLEIA exhibited an excellent recovery with a range of 84.6–106.9% and an acceptable coefficient of variation below 15%, suggesting its suitability and reliability for the use of a promising tool to detect FQs. Meanwhile, comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) and comparative molecular similarity indices analysis (CoMSIA) models, with statistically significant correlation coefficients (<i>q</i>²_CoMFA = 0.559, <i>r</i>²_CoMFA = 0.999; <i>q</i>²_CoMSIA = 0.559, <i>r</i>²_CoMSIA = 0.994), were established to investigate the antibody recognition mechanism. These two models revealed that in the antibody, the active cavity binding FQs’ 7-position substituents worked together with another cavity (binding FQs’ 1-position groups) to crucially endow the high cross-reactivity. This investigation will be significant for better exploring the recognition mechanism and for designing new haptens

Molecular Modeling Application on Hapten Epitope Prediction: An Enantioselective Immunoassay for Ofloxacin Optical Isomers

To deepen our understanding of the physiochemical principles that govern hapten–antibody recognition, ofloxacin enantiomers were chosen as a model for epitope prediction of small molecules. In this study, two monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) mAb-WR1 and mAb-MS1 were raised against <i>R</i>-ofloxacin and <i>S</i>-ofloxacin, respectively. The enantioselective mAbs have a high sensitivity and specificity, and the enantioselectivity is not affected by heterologous coating format reactions. The epitopes of the ofloxacin isomers were predicted using the hologram quantitative structure–activity relationship (HQSAR) and comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) approaches. The results consistently show that the epitope of the chiral hapten should be primarily composed of the oxazine ring and the piperazinyl ring and mAbs recognize the hapten from the side of this moiety. The enantioselectivity of mAbs is most likely due to the steric hindrance caused by the stereogenic center of the epitope. Modeling of chiral hapten–protein mimics reveals that ofloxacin isomers remain upright on the surface of the carrier protein. Suggestions to improve the enantioselectivity of antibodies against ofloxacin isomers were also proposed. This study provided a simple, efficient, and general method for predicting the epitopes of small molecules via molecular modeling. The epitope predictions for small molecules may create a theoretical guide for hapten design

Investigation of an Immunoassay with Broad Specificity to Quinolone Drugs by Genetic Algorithm with Linear Assignment of Hypermolecular Alignment of Data Sets and Advanced Quantitative Structure–Activity Relationship Analysis

A polyclonal antibody against the quinolone drug pazufloxacin (PAZ) but with surprisingly broad specificity was raised to simultaneously detect 24 quinolones (QNs). The developed competitive indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ciELISA) exhibited limits of detection (LODs) for the 24 QNs ranging from 0.45 to 15.16 ng/mL, below the maximum residue levels (MRLs). To better understand the obtained broad specificity, a genetic algorithm with linear assignment of hypermolecular alignment of data sets (GALAHAD) was used to generate the desired pharmacophore model and superimpose the QNs, and then advanced comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) and advanced comparative molecular similarity indices analysis (CoMSIA) models were employed to study the three-dimensional quantitative structure–activity relationship (3D QSAR) between QNs and the antibody. It was found that the QNs could interact with the antibody with different binding poses, and cross-reactivity was mainly positively correlated with the bulky substructure containing electronegative atom at the 7-position, while it was negatively associated with the large bulky substructure at the 1-position of QNs