ELISA screening of monoclonal antibodies to haptens: influence of the chemical structure of hapten-protein conjugates.

An analysis has been made of the influence of the chemical structure of hapten-protein conjugates on ELISA based screening monoclonal antibodies to haptens. Evidence has been obtained that the size of haptens should be taken into account. For haptens with a relatively large molecular weight, one can use a conjugate with a carrier protein differing from the immunogen. For small haptens, the screening should be conducted with a conjugate differing from the immunogen with respect to both the carrier protein and the chemical linkage between the hapten and the protein. In addition, the hapten-protein coupling should involves different amino acid residues.