title: Construction and clinical validation of a sensitive and specific assay for serum mature calcitonin using monoclonal anti-peptide antibodies.
abstract: Using calcitonin (CT) as an hapten, we have generated a library of monoclonal antibodies. Six monoclonal antibodies were developed and analyzed with respect to affinity and specificity for epitopes on CT by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay and radioimmunoassay. These antibodies were used in the construction and the optimization of a two-site monoclonal immunoradiometric assay (m-IRMA) for CT. We used a combination of two monoclonal antibodies to develop an assay which is rapid (overnight incubation), sensitive (10 pg/ml) and strictly specific for the mature form of calcitonin, ie the 32 amino acid-long polypeptide bearing a prolineamide as the C-terminal residue. This assay was utilized to demonstrate that mature calcitonin circulates as heterogeneous molecular species resulting from polymerization of calcitonin by disulphide linkage and/or by aggregation on irrelevant proteins. The clinical relevance of this assay was studied on a series of patients with medullary carcinoma of the thyroid (MCT) and the characteristics of the assay was compared with those of a conventional polyclonal radioimmunoassay. The m-IRMA for CT proved to be useful for both the diagnosis and the follow-up of MCT.
authors: Unité d'Immunochimie, Institut Gustave-Roussy, Villejuif, France.
authors: P
authors: P
authors: Motté
authors: P
authors: P
authors: Vauzelle
authors: P
authors: P
authors: Gardet
authors: P
authors: P
authors: Ghillani
authors: B
authors: B
authors: Caillou
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Parmentier
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Bohuon
authors: D
authors: D
authors: Bellet
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000276:immunology*; D000915:Antibody Affinity; D000918:Antibody Specificity; D002116:Calcitonin / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology; D000939:Epitopes / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007118:Immunoassay / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000097:blood
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D000939:Epitopes; D002116:Calcitonin