Immunoassays of psychoactive drugs including psychotomimetic drugs, narcotic drugs, and tetrahydrocannabinols and treatment methods based on the antigenic properties of protein conjugates of these drugs. These methods are based upon treating the psychoactive substances as haptens and utilizing their protein conjugates to produce antibodies to the psychoactive materials themselves. The immunoassay methods include both agglutination and agglutination-inhibition reactions. The treatment methods include treatment or both exogenous, administered drugs (such as cannabinols, LSD, heroin and morphine) and endogenous substances (such as N,N-Dimethyltryptamine and 5-Methoxy-N,N-Dimethyltryptamine by active immunization and also passive immunization.

Claims

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. An immunoassay method of determining a hapten in a biological sample comprising mixing with said sample a first antibody to a first site on said hapten and a second antibody to a second site on said hapten, the quantities of said first and second antibodies being chosen to produce a precipitate in the presence of at least a predetermined amount of said hapten.

2. An immunoassay method of determining a hapten in a sample, the hapten having more than one antigenic site, the method comprising mixing with said sample a first antibody to a first site on said hapten and a second antibody to a second site on said hapten, at least one of said first and second antibodies being bound to an agglutinable particulate carrier, the presence of at least a predetermined amount of said hapten in the mixture causing agglutination of said particulate carrier.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein both said first and second antibodies are bound to an agglutinable particulate carrier.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein both said first and second antibodies are bound to at least some of the same individual particles of said carrier.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein only one of the first and second antibodies is bound to an agglutinable particulate carrier.

6. A method of determining a hapten comprising a step for mixing a sample with a predetermined quantity of a species taken from the group consisting of an antibody to said hapten and an antibody to said hapten bound to an agglutinable particulate carrier, and thereafter combining with said mixture the other of said antibody and said antibody bound to an agglutinable particulate carrier, said antibody and said antibody bound to an agglutinable particulate carrier being present in quantities to produce agglutination when and only when the quantity of hapten in said sample is above a predetermined amount.

7. A method of determining a hapten in a biological sample, the hapten having more than one antigenic site, the method comprising a first step of preparing a first antibody to a first antigenic site on the hapten, a separate second step of preparing a second antibody to a second antigenic site on the hapten, and thereafter a step of utilizing the first antibody and the second antibody to determine the hapten in the sample.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the step of utilizing the first and second antibodies comprises binding said first antibody to an agglutinable particulate carrier.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the agglutinable particulate carrier is selected from the group consisting of erythrocytes and latex particles.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the step of utilizing the first and second antibodies comprises agglutination of a plurality of the particulate carriers when the chemical species is present in a predetermined quantity.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the sample is first exposed to the carrier-bound first antibody, and the carrier-bound first antibody is thereafter exposed to the second antibody.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein the step of utilizing the first and second antibodies comprises a step of exposing the sample to the first antibody, and thereafter a step of exposing the first antibody to the second antibody to determine the presence of the hapten bound to the first antibody by binding of the second antibody to the hapten.

13. The method of claim 7 wherein the first step comprises immunization with the hapten bound to a carrier to provide steric guidance of the first antigenic site.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the second step comprises immunization with the hapten differently bound to the same carrier or bound to another carrier to provide steric guidance to the second site.

15. The method of claim 7 wherein the first and second steps comprise immunization of different species of animals.

16. A method of determining a hapten in a biological sample, said hapten containing a first antigenic site and a second immunogenically different antigenic site, said method comprising a first step of forming a first antibody to said first site on the hapten, a separate second step of forming a second antibody to said second immunologically different site on the hapten, and a step of utilizing the first antibody and the second antibody to produce an indication in the presence of the hapten in the sample.

 

Click Here for Other Patents Available for Licensing