A bioluminescence micromethod for measuring chloramphenicol in serum

Bioluminescence provides a sensitive analytical approach for the measurement of low concentrations of ATP and can be used to monitor any reaction in which ATP is consumed or synthesized. We describe a quick, sensitive method involving bioluminescence for the quantitation of chloramphenicol in serum. Chloramphenicol acetyl transferase catalyzes the acetylation of chloramphenicol in the presence of acetyl coenzyme A. ATP is consumed when the acetylation reaction is coupled to the acetyl coenzyme A synthetase reaction. Residual ATP is then assayed with the firefly luciferin-luciferase reaction. The procedure can be completed in less than 1 h and requires as little as 20 microliter of serum. The response of the assay is linear with concentration through a range of 2 to 20 mg/L and shows good correlation with a gas-chromatographic method (r = 0.978) and a radioenzymic method (r = 0.985). No significant interference was found from five other antibiotics tested. The small sample requirement makes the assay especially applicable to infant and pediatric monitoring, where the effects of toxicity are greatest.