A novel chemistry for conjugating pneumococcal polysaccharides to Luminex microspheres

Here we describe a novel method to conjugate pneumococcal polysaccharides (PnPS) to Luminex microspheres for use in serological assays. 4-(4,6-dimethoxy[1,3,5]triazin-2-yl)-4-methyl-morpholinium (DMTMM) modification of PnPS and conjugation to carboxyl functional groups on Luminex microspheres (COOH-DMTMM method) was shown to be a reproducible chemistry that efficiently conjugated PnPS to Luminex microspheres without affecting the antigenicity of a broad set of PnPS. The COOH-DMTMM method was compared to three other methods for robustness, reproducibility and effect on PnPS antigenicity in a multiplexed assay format. The other methods examined included adsorption of the unmodified PnPS to Luminex microspheres, oxidation of the PnPS to conjugate them to amino-modified microspheres using carbodiimide chemistry and poly-L-lysine modification of the PnPS before conjugating to carboxy Luminex microspheres using carbodiimide chemistry. Of the four methods, the COOH-DMTMM chemistry was shown to be a robust methodology, producing stable PnPS coupled microspheres with a 4-log dynamic range and low cross-reactivity when used in a PnPS-specific IgG serology assay. This novel chemistry should be useful for developing serological assays to measure antibodies to polysaccharides for use in vaccine and epidemiology studies. (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V.