Design of cocaethylene and cocaine conjugates to produce highly selective polyclonal antibodies.

With the aim to obtain specific anti-cocaine antibodies directed against cocaine and active metabolites for use in immunotherapy, a series of six haptens were prepared, based on the structure of cocaine. The haptens differed by 3 positions of linkers: nitrogen, carboxyl group, and aromatic nucleus. The haptens were grafted onto 3 carrier proteins: bovine serum albumin, tetanus toxoid or keyhole limpet hemocyanin according to different methods of coupling: carbodiimide or mixed anhydride techniques.

Determination of ethylene thiourea in urine by HPLC-DAD.

Ethylene thiourea (ETU) is a metabolite of ethylenebisdithiocarbamates (EBDCs); it is the best indicator of exposure to these fungicides. Therefore, high-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode-array detection (HPLC-DAD) was optimized and validated for the determination of ETU in human urines. Urine samples were extracted by solid-phase extraction using Extrelut and analyzed using HPLC-DAD set at 231 nm.