Development and Validation of an ELISA to Evaluate Neutralizing Equine Anti Shiga Toxin antibodies in Preclinical Studies

HIRIART YANINA; GUSTAVO HEIN; HUGO ORTEGA; MUÑOZ LUCIANA; SANTIAGO SANGUINETI; BELKIS MARELLI; GONZALO, SANTIAGO; FLORENCIA REY; VANESA ZYLBERMAN

Venoms and toxins

Bentham Science

Año: 2022

2666-1217

Abstract: Background: Hemolytic uremic syndrome associated with Shiga-toxin produced by Escherichia coli is a serious worldwide foodborne disease. Nowadays, no treatment is available, onlysupportive care can be provided, and 50 % of the patients require a period of dialysis. Recently, atherapy based on Neutralizing Equine Anti Shiga Toxin (NEAST) antibodies has been developed.NEAST is composed of F(ab’)2 fragments from equine immunoglobulins.Objective: The purpose of this study was to develop an ELISA to measure serum concentrations ofNEAST in mice and rabbits, and to validate it according to international recommendations. Thevalidated method was further used to analyze the NEAST PK during preclinical studies.Methods: A sandwich ELISA was developed, the performance of the calibration curve was assessed,and it was validated based on the parameters as accuracy, precision, specificity, selectivity, stabilityof the analyte, and dilutional linearity.Results: This immunoassay was specific, sensitive, accurate and precise in a dynamic range from7.81 to 500 ng/mL and from 15.63 to 500 ng/mL for mice and rabbits, respectively. This method wassuccessfully applied to PK studies of NEAST after intravenous administration.Conclusion: The results obtained are expected for a robust ELISA used for macromolecule analysis.Since NEAST is an equine F(ab′)2, this immunoassay would serve for the evaluation of the PK profile of any biological product based on molecules with similar characteristics. This immunoassaymay be useful for current and future preclinical trials conducted for registration purposes.