Hapten design and development of polarization fluoroimmunoassay for nonylphenol

Polyclonal antibodies to nonylphenol (NP), raised against two different haptenic derivatives were characterized by a rapid, homogeneous polarization fluoroimmunoassay (PFIA). The first hapten, a (4-hydroxyphenyl)nonanoic acid (NP9), was designed to mimic the linear NP isomer and contains hydroxypheryl and linear alkyl chain moieties of the NP molecule. The second hapten, 4-aminophenol (4AP), contains the hydroxyphenyl moiety of NP molecule alone and thus potentially mimics various phenolic compounds with different side chain structures. A number of fluorescent labeled antigens (tracers) with various structures of the spacer arm between the antigen and the fluorescent dye was synthesized and used to optimize the competitor structure for NP-specific PFIA. The most sensitive assay with limit of detection (LOD) and IC50 values of 8 and 53 mg L-1, respectively, was obtained when anti-NP9 antibody and NP9-labeled antigen were used. Anti-NP9 resulted in more specific assay, where the cross-reactivity toward the relative phenolic compounds did not exceed 5%. Anti-4AP displayed substantial recognition of several bis-substituted phenols, including 2-amino-4-chlorophenol and 2,4-dinitrophenol.