Linker-mediated modulation of the chemiluminescent signal from N(10)-(3-Sulfopropyl)-N-sulfonylacridinium-9-carboxamide tracers.

Four chemiluminescent N-sulfonylacridinium-9-carboxamide active esters (17-20) were prepared from the corresponding acids and coupled to both of the aminated phenobarbital (13) and N-(6-aminohexyl)phenytoin (16) haptens. The level of signal produced by chemiluminescent N-sulfonylacridinium-9-carboxamide phenobarbital and phenytoin tracers in a solid-phase immunoassay format was found to be modulated by at least 20-fold by the judicious choice of the reactive acridinium-hapten linking group.