Assay methods urease

Urease assay. When Proteus mirabilis grows in a urea-containing medium it hydrolyses the urea to ammonia and consequently raises the pH of the medium. This production of urease is inhibited by aminoglycoside antibiotics (inhibitors of protein synthesis Chapter 8). In practice, it is difficult to obtain reliable results by this method. 

For reactions in which one or more reactants or products is a gas, manometry (the measurement of pressure differences) can provide a convenient means for monitoring the course and kinetics of the reaction Thus, enzymes that can be assayed with this method include oxidases, urease, carbonic anhydrase, hydrogenase, and decarboxylases. For example, bacterial glutamate decarboxylase is readily assayed by utilizing a Warburg flask and measuring the volume of gas evolved at different times using a constant-pressure respirometer. ... 

Urea is most commonly assayed by combined urease methods, in which the urea is first converted to two ammonium ions. The ammonium generated is then measured by either enzymatic or chemical methods. Urea nitrogen values determined by this method (mg/ml) are converted to urea values by the use of appropriate factors (2.14 for urea in mg/ml, 0.357 for urea in mmol/L) (Emeigh Hart and Kinter 2005). 

Ideally, the sensor used to sense the biocatalyzed reaction should not react with other substances in the sample. This requirement is not always met using either potentiometric or amperometric methods. For example, immobilized urease electrodes operating with a cation glass sensor measuring the NHj are inadequate for blood and urine assays because they also respond to Na+ and K+ (59, 60). However, a glass electrode sensor (165) or, better, a solid antibiotic nonactin electrode (61) gives more selective response. The latter has a selectivity of NHt/K+ of 6.5 and NHt/Na+ of 0.075. 

Bovine serum albumin (BSA) and cyclic AMP (cAMP) are determined by a competitive binding enzyme immunoassay (315). With urease as label, an ammonia gas-sensing electrode is used to measure the amount of urease-labeled antigen bound to a double-antibody solid phase by continuously measuring the rate of ammonia produced from urea as substrate. The method yields accurate and sensitive assays for proteins (BSA less than 10 ng/mL) and antigens (cAMP less than 10 nM), with fairly good selectivity over cGMP, AMP, and GMP. 

Detection limits in EIA are ultimately determined by how low one can measure the label s concentration via an activity assay. Sensitivity in such a kinetic determination is dependent upon the turnover number of the enzyme molecule and the method employed to detect the product of the catalyzed reaction. Purified urease obtained from Sigma Chemical Co. has considerably higher activity on a molar basis (international units per mole of enzyme) than the best available commercial preparations of some other common enzyme labels such as alkaline phosphatase, /8-galactosi-dase, peroxidase, - and glucose oxidase. This is due to the high mo-... 

Activity assays of enzymes bound to solid phases in EIA systems have previously been limited to fixed-time spectrophotometric methods following incubation of substrate and solid phase for extended periods of time. Kinetic assays of enzyme activity have not been used to date because of the difficulty in directly monitoring initial rates of enzyme reactions in a turbid solid phase suspension. With urease as the label, an ammonia gas sensing electrode can be used to directly quantitate the amount of urease-labeled antigen or hapten bound to a double-antibody solid phase by continuously measuring the initial rate of ammonia produced from urea as a substrate. 

The sensitive part of an electrode is covered with a membrane on which the enzyme is immobilized in immunocomplexes. The enzyme-catalyzed reaction takes place near the sensor (Mattiasson and Nilsson, 1977). The method is as fast as the thermometric assay but less sensitive. Electrode-based EIA using urease conjugates have been reviewed by Meyerhoff and Rechnitz (1980). This method has reasonably low detection limits. These promising potentiometric EIA are discussed by Boiteux et al. (1981) and Gabauer and Rechnitz (1982). 

Besides these conventional reactors with spherical immobilizates, urease has also been immobilized inside nylon tubing and pipette tips ( enzyme pipette , Sundaram and Jayonne, 1979), on nylon fibers ( enzyme brush , Raghavan et al., 1986), and on the surface of a magnetic stirrer (Guilbault and Starklov, 1975). The urease reaction was in each case carried out at optimal pH after removal of the immobilized enzyme NH3 was assayed electrochemically or photometrically according to Berthelot s method. 

Kulys et al. (1986b) studied urea determination by difference measurement between two antimony electrodes covered with exchangable membranes (Fig. 68). Urease was attached in the pores of a macroporous membrane (thickness, 10 pm, pore diameter, 0.1 pm) by glutaraldehyde. This layer was covered with a monoacetylcellulose membrane. The membrane for the auxiliary electrode was prepared analogously, but using BSA instead of urease. The assay of urea was carried out with a differential amplifier which simultaneously differentiated the time course of the potential difference between enzyme and auxiliary electrode (kinetic method). Thus, a response time of only 20 s was possible. 

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