Final Technical Report ONT/ASEE (Office of Naval Technology/American Society for Engineering Education) Postdoctoral Fellow on Contract N00014-83-D-0689

摘要

This final technical report consists of two technical papers which were submitted for publication. The first paper discusses Indium-Coated Membranes Versus Nitrocellulose Membranes for use in a Spot Immunoassay. Immunoassays performed on membranes can be used for the detection of large or small molecular weight substances. The end product of the immunoassay is a spot on the surface of the membrane which is discernable with the naked eye. We tested three different enzyme-substrate systems and colloidal gold with silver amplification. The resulting spots varied in color and in their ability to resist fading. When indium-coated membranes are used, antigen-antibody reactions can be visualized with or without development reagents. With amplification, the quality of the spots produced on nitrocellulose membranes is far superior to the spots produced on indium-coated membranes. The second paper pertains to technologies used in mass screening for drugs of abuse. Four mass screening techniques for drugs of abuse Thin Layer Chromatography, Radioimmunoassay, Enzyme Multiple Immunoassay Technique and Fluorescent Polarization Immunoassay have been described. For small-scale screening, TLC is the most cost effective.