Hapten and antibody production for a sensitive immunoassay determining a human urinary metabolite of the pyrethroid insecticide permethrin

Permethrin is the most popular synthetic pyrethroid insecticide in agriculture and public health. For the development of the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to evaluate human exposure to permethrin, the glycine conjugate (DCCA-glycine) of a major metabolite, cis/trans-3-(2,2-dichlorovinyl)-2,2-dimethylcyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (DCCA), of permethrin was established as the target analyte. Four different types of the cis- and trans-isomers of immunizing haptens were synthesized as follows: N-(cis/trans-3-(2,2-dichlorovinyl)-2,2-dimethylcyclopropane-1-carbonyl)glycine (hapten 3), N-(cis/trans-3-(2,2-dichlorovinyl)-2,2-dimethylcyclopropane-1-carbonyl)-4-amino-l-phenylalanine (hapten 5), N-(N-(cis/trans-3-(2,2-dichlorovinyl)-2,2-dimethylcyclopropane-1-carbonyl)glycine)amino-6-(2,4-dinitrophenyl)aminohexanoic acid (hapten 9), and N-(cis/trans-3-(2,2-dichlorovinyl)-2,2-dimethylcyclopropane-1-carbonyl)glycine-4-oxobutanoic acid (hapten 24). Sixteen polyclonal antibodies produced against each cis- or trans-hapten-thyroglobulin conjugate as immunogens were screened against numerous hapten-bovine serum albumin conjugates as coating antigens. Six ELISAs with both a heterologous hapten structure and a heterologous hapten configuration (cis/trans or trans/cis) between antibody and coating antigen showed a high sensitivity for the target analyte. The IC50 was 1.3, 2.1, and 2.2 microg/L for the trans-target analyte and 0.4, 2.3, and 2.8 microg/L for the cis-target analyte. The immunizing haptens, except for hapten 5, provided the target specific antibodies. Molecular modeling of the haptens supported the selection of reasonable immunizing haptens that best mimicked the target analyte. Hapten 5 was suitable as a coating antigen rather than as an immunogen since it had a different geometry. Very low cross-reactivities were measured to permethrin, its free metabolite (DCCA), PBA-glycine conjugate, and glycine. The ELISA will be optimized for the detection of total cis/trans-DCCA-glycine in human urine samples.