Syntheses of europium-labeled digoxin derivatives and their use in time-resolved fluoroimmunoassay

A simple and efficient method of derivatizing and labeling the terminal sugar ring of digoxin (and other steroid glycosides) is described. The terminal sugar ring was oxidized by periodate to dialdehyde, followed by a reaction with the aminooxy group of heterobifunctional spacer reagent. Usually, reductive amination is needed to stabilize the Schiff base-type compounds produced in reactions between amino and aldehyde groups. Here the oxime compounds produced are stable wherefore the reductive amination step can be avoided and the reaction gives high yields without significant side reactions. After characterization the digoxin dioxime derivatives formed were labeled with europium chelates. These labeled digoxin derivatives bearing one or two europium-containing chelates, coupled via different spacers, were purified and tested in a competitive time-resolved fluoroimmunoassay. Several digoxin-specific monoclonal antibodies were also tested to determine the most suitable antibody-tracer combination, which was then employed to develop a simple competitive time-resolved fluoroimmunoassay for digoxin.