Radioimmunoassay of bleomycins

Rabbit antisera highly specific to the bleomycinic acid moiety of bleomycins were obtained by immunizing with a conjugate of copper-complex of bleomycin A5 and bovine serum albumin. These antisera not only reacted with bleomycin A5 but also with other bleomycins such as bleomycin A2, bleomycin B2 and peplomycin. The antisera showed little cross-reactivity with deamido-, depyruvamido- and decarbamoyl-bleomycins. Thus, these antisera were found to be highly specific for the intact bleomycinic acid moiety. One of the antisera was successfully applied to radioimmunoassay of bleomycin and peplomycin in mouse and human sera. The detection limit was 1 ng/ml. This radioimmunoassay is expected to be widely used for the determination of active bleomycins in biological and clinical samples.