A competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for alpha 1-acid glycoprotein in serum and urine samples

In this solid-phase competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for alpha 1-acid glycoprotein in serum or urine, antiserum to human alpha 1-acid glycoprotein is incubated with solid-phase-bound alpha 1-acid glycoprotein in the presence of standard or sample. Incubation with second antibody labeled with alkaline phosphatase then follows, before development with substrate. Results obtained correlate well with a fluorescent assay involving the dye Auramine O (r = 0.953) and with radial immunodiffusion (r = 0.921). The present assay covers the range 0.2 to 5 mg/L and 16 samples take 2.5 h to complete. This assay is useful for measuring concentrations of alpha 1-acid glycoprotein in serum and also in urine, for which other assay methods are not sufficiently sensitive.