Inhibition of Horseradish Peroxidase (HRP) by a Nonhydrophobic Component of Urine: A Caution for Immunoassays

Undiluted urine mixed directly with HRP suppresses generation of enzyme product to less than 80% of that seen in buffer controls. Incubating dilutions of various urine preparations with HRP immobilized on concanavalin A coated microtiter plates reveals that the source of urine or HRP, and the type of HRP substrate used have minimal effect on the degree of HRP suppression; only dilutions of urine greater than 8-fold with buffer produce HRP activities equivalent to those in buffer. Treating urine with charcoal or C18 silica only partially reverses the HRP suppression. Inhibition of HRP in competitive assays biases results to the high side and in noncompetive assays biases results to the low side. The present findings suggest analysts should avoid immunoassay protocols that allow direct contact between undiluted urine and HRP reporter conjugates and should be cautious with quantitative results previously reported from assays that used undiluted urine with HRP reporters.

Development of a Novel Polyclonal Antibody-Based Immunoassay for the Quantitation of Non-Albumin Urinary Proteins

Background: Better diagnostic methods to detect urinary proteinuria or albuminuria, important indicators of diabetic kidney disease, are needed. Here, we describe the development and performance qualification of a new immunoassay for the quantitation of non-albumin urinary proteins of 20 to 90 kilodaltons. Methods: Urinary proteins, purified from pooled, 24-hour, diabetic urines, were immunoabsorbed to remove albumin, electrophoretically characterized, and identified by mass spectrometry. Sheep anti-urinary protein polyclonal antibodies were immunoabsorbed to remove albumin reactivity. Major immunoreactive specificities of the polyclonal antibody were identified by Western blot. A polyclonal antibody-based competitive immunoassay was developed and performanceevaluated. An unpaired t-test (α = 0.05) and a receiver-operating characteristic curve were used to evaluate the measurement of 24-hour urinary protein excretion rates in distinguishing between normal, proteinuric, and albuminuric samples. Results: Approximately 380 mg of urinary protein was purified from 6.0 g of total urinary proteins. Mass spectrometry identified more than 36 different proteins in the purified preparation. The anti-urinary protein polyclonal antibody possessed significant immunoreactivity towards transferrin, IgG chains, alpha-1-acid glycoprotein, zinc-alpha-2-glycoprotein, prostaglandin-H2-d-isomerase, and alpha-1-microglobulin. The competitive immunoassay exhibited excellent analytical and clinical performance. Measurement of urinary protein excretion rates could distinguish between normoproteinuric and proteinuric samples (p < 0.0001; area under the curve = 0.6900) and between normoalbuminuric and albuminuric samples (p < 0.0001; area under the curve = 0.8782). Conclusion: Measurement of urinary protein excretion rates using the urinary protein immunoassay is clinically equivalent to laboratory methods of quantitating total urinary protein or albumin in identifying proteinuria and albuminuria.