A NEW MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODY FOR THE SENSITIVE DETECTION OF ATRAZINE WITH IMMUNOASSAY IN MICROTITER PLATE AND DIPSTICK FORMAT

To develop atrazine-specific monoclonal antibodies (mAb), hybridoma cells were produced by the fusion of mouse myeloma cells (PAI-B3AG8I) and spleen cells from mice immunized with 4-chloro-6-(ethylamino)-1,3,5-triazine-2-(6-aminohexanecarboxylic acid) coupled to keyhole limpet hemocyanin. After screening with a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), a mAb with a high binding affinity for atrazine was selected and used to develop a sensitive competitive direct ELISA in a microtiter plate and a dipstick format. With the microtiter plate ELISA atrazine can be determined in the range from 0.03 to 1 mug/L with a test centerpoint at 0.1 mug/L. The mAb cross-reacts predominantly with propazine (136%) and to a lower extent with cyanazine (28%) and terbuthylazine (26%). The use of a dipstick format allows the quick visual detection of atrazine in concentrations above 0.5 mug/L in aqueous samples within about 20 min.