Immunochemical techniques: Antibody production for pesticide analysis. A review

Immunochemical techniques supplement traditional analytical methods in an ideal way because they are extremely sensitive, simple, and inexpensive. The most important types presently used for environmental analysis are immunoassays, immunosensors, immunochromatography, and immunolabeling. Representative examples are given. Standardized immuno-chemical methods for environmental monitoring profit from monoclonal antibodies because of defined selectivities and affinities toward the analyte. A critical step in the production of monoclonal antibodies is the development of efficient screening procedures to identify suitable hybridoma lines. Immunomagnetic beads offer an alternative to conventional screening with immunoassays because the problems of being time-consuming, escaping detection or loosing valuable cells can be solved. This technique is based on tagging surface receptors of hybridoma cells with binding properties of the secreted antibodies by magnetic beads, which are coated with hapten conjugates. In spite of the considerable progress in hybridoma technology, antibody development has entered an entirely new domain because of the potential of recombinant antibodies. Recombinant technology will eventually allow faster production of antibodies with new binding properties (mutant antibodies) and also a stepwise abandonment of animal experiments required for antibody production. The production of phage antibodies for s-triazines is described.