Detection of Morphine by Hemagglutination-Inhibition

Abstract

Abstract The production of antibodies reactive with morphine and a radioimmunoassay sensitive to 0.5 ng of the drug has been recently described (1). This note confirms these findings and describes a rapid, simple and inexpensive hemagglutination-inhibition (HI) test of equal or greater sensitivity which appears to be adaptable to the screening of large numbers of urine specimens with a minimum of effort and equipment. The immune serum used in the experiments to be described was obtained from a rabbit 4 weeks after a first injection with 1.0 mg of a conjugate of carboxymethylmorphine (CMM) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) in complete Freund's adjuvant and 1 week after a booster of another 1.0 mg. While the immunizing antigen was kindly donated by Dr. C. W. Parker, preparations of CMM and their conjugates used in the in vitro work and in the immunization of additional rabbits were prepared by us according to Spector and Parker and the references cited in their article (1).