Quantitative assay of diphtherial toxin and of immunologically cross-reacting proteins by reversed passive hemagglutination

A reversed passive hemagglutination (RPHA) assay for diptherial toxin has been developed. Antitoxic antibodies were isolated from commercially available equine diptherial antitoxin by immunoabsorption using highly purified diphtherial toxin covalently linked to Sepharose 4B. Formalinized, tanned sheep erythrocytes sensitized with the purified antitoxic antibodies are specifically agglutinated by diphtherial toxin but are not agglutinated by extracellular antigens of Corynebacterium diptheriae that are unrelated to toxin. The RPHA assay described can detect less than 20 pg of diphtherial toxin and is comparable in sensitivity to intracutaneous tests for toxin. The RPHA assay was shown to be at least 1,000 times more sensitive than quantitative immunological assays for diptherial toxin performed by single radial immunodiffusion or by one-dimensional double diffusion in agar gels. Fragment A prepared from purified diphtherial toxin and nontoxic mutant proteins that cross-react immunologically with toxin can be assayed directly by RPHA, but the sensitivity of the assay for these proteins is less than for native diphtherial toxin. Inhibition of RPHA was also shown to be a sensitive quantitative method for measuring diptherial antitoxin in vitro.