Antisera specific for carcinogen-DNA adducts and carcinogen-modified DNA: applications for detection of xenobiotics in biological samples.

The development of immunoassays and immunoaffinity chromatography methods for determination of carcinogen-DNA adducts and carcinogen-modified DNA samples rests upon eliciting and characterizing polyclonal and monoclonal antisera against these haptens. The use of such antisera has widespread application in investigating chronic carcinogen administration in animal models and in monitoring human tissues for evidence of carcinogen exposure. Radioimmunoassays and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays developed with carcinogen-DNA adduct antisera are exceedingly sensitive, measuring 1 adduct in 10(8) nucleotides. Not only can DNA damage be quantified directly by immunoassay, but the antisera have also been used to isolate DNA adducts of a particular chemical class by immunoaffinity chromatography before application of more chemically-specific end-points. Both of these methodological approaches have made seminal contributions to the newly-emerging field of molecular epidemiology. This chapter will focus on methods for preparing immunogens, the establishment of immunoassays, characterization of antisera and specific problems encountered with biological samples in addition, the use of immunoaffinity chromatography for preparative concentration of DNA adducts of a particular class will be included.