Homogeneous substrate-labeled fluorescent immunoassay for disopyramide in human serum: semi- and fully automated...

In this immunoassay for disopyramide in serum, to form the label, disopyramide is covalently attached to a fluorogenic enzyme substrate, 7-beta-galactosylcoumarin-3-carboxylic acid, which is nonfluorescent under the conditions of the assay. Hydrolysis, catalyzed by beta-galactosidase, yields a fluorescent product. As a result of competitive protein binding reactions between drug and label for limited antibody binding sites, this fluorescence is proportional to disopyramide concentration. The assay is sensitive to less than 0.5 mg of disopyramide per liter. Results obtained with either the semi-automated procedure (Ames TDA) or the fully automated (Optimate) procedure correlated well with those obtained by liquid chromatography (r = 0.98 and 0.99). For commercial controls containing various concentrations of the drug, the respective coefficients of correlation were 1.00 and 0.99 for the TDA and Optimate procedures. Within-run CVs for the two procedures were less than or equal to 5.1%, overall CVs less than or equal to 6.5%.