Veterinary Immunology and Immunopathology 149 (2012) 46–53 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Veterinary Immunology and Immunopathology j o ur nal ho me p age: w ww.elsevier.com/locate/vetimm Research paper An investigation into the potential use of nanoparticles as adjuvants for the production of polyclonal antibodies to low molecular weight compounds Suja E. George a,∗ , Christopher T. Elliott a , Declan P. McLaughlin a , Philippe Delahaut b , Takami Akagi c , Mitsuru Akashi c , Terence L. Fodey d a Institute of Agri-Food and Land Use, School of Biological Sciences, Queens University Belfast, David Keir Building, Stranmillis Road, Belfast BT9 5AG, UK b CER Groupe, Département Santé, Marloie B-6900, Belgium c Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, 2-1 Yamadaoka, Suita 565-0871, Japan d Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Veterinary Sciences Division, Stoney Road, Belfast BT4 3SD, UK a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 16 March 2012 Received in revised form 22 May 2012 Accepted 4 June 2012 Keywords: Adjuvant Nanoparticles Antibody Immunoassay ELISA a b s t r a c t Two nanoparticle based adjuvants were assessed for their ability to produce polyclonal antibodies in rabbits to low molecular weight target analytes, i.e. veterinary drugs banned from use in food producing animals. The nanoparticles, Montanide IMS 251 and amphiphilic poly (-glutamic acid) were compared against a mineral oil adjuvant, Montanide ISA 50, which had previously been shown to be successful in producing antibodies to haptens whilst being safe to use with respect to the welfare of the host animals. The adjuvants were assessed for their tendency to cause adverse effects to the host animals and by the quality of the antibodies generated in terms of assay sensitivity. None of the three adjuvants employed in the trial generated any measurable adverse effects in the host animals. While the mineral oil adjuvant produced higher titres of antibodies the nanoparticle adjuvants were found to produce antibodies of statistically comparable sensitivity. Based on IC 50 values, six antisera displayed potential to detect the required level of the target compounds; five of these were produced by rabbits immunised with the two different nanoparticle adjuvants. As antibody sensitivity is the main performance criteria of an analytical immunoassay, it can be concluded that the nanoparticle adjuvants under evaluation are fit for the purpose described in this study. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Many areas of biotechnology such as immunodiagnos- tic techniques rely on the use of specific antibodies that are produced in laboratory animals via their immune response to an immunogenic complex of the target. Immunoassays to detect the presence of contaminants in food items such ∗ Corresponding author at: Institute of Agri-Food and Land Use, Queens University Belfast, David Keir Building, Stranmillis Road, Belfast BT9 5AG, UK. Tel.: +44 28 90975564; fax: +44 28 90976513. E-mail address: s.george@qub.ac.uk (S.E. George). as ELISA (Cooper et al., 2007; Wesongah et al., 2007) and biosensor methods (Fodey et al., 2011a; Thompson et al., 2009) require specific recognition elements to bind the target and allow for its identification and quantification. Research is ongoing to develop synthetic and natural alter- natives to antibodies that can act as specific binders of target analytes (Fodey et al., 2011b). Advances in recom- binant antibody techniques have provided a means of generating large repertoires of antibodies which can be obtained from immunised or non-immunised animals, hence reducing or eliminating the need for host immunisa- tion (Vehniäinen et al., 2011). By employing phage display selection, the researcher can choose the antibody which 0165-2427/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.vetimm.2012.06.002