Tetracyclines tetracycline-protein conjugates

Due to their extremely polar character, tetracyclines bind with proteins to form conjugates that are difficult to extract from biological matrices. Use of dilute mineral acids is of great help in dissociating tetracyclines from proteins, but once in aqueous solution, their exfraction into volatile organic solvents for further concentration and cleanup is hampered by the unfavorable partition coefficients. Most of these antibiotics are photosensitive compounds, whereas all of them show poor stability under strong acidic and alkaline conditions with reversible formation of the 4-epi-tetracyclines in weakly acidic conditions (pH 3), and anhydro-tetracyclines in strong acidic conditions (below pH 2). 

Key to the successful production of generic antisera for the tetracycline antibiotics has been the synthesis of the hapten 4-hydrazino-4-dedimethylamino-tetracycline and its subsequent conjugation to protein (73). The immunochemical method developed from this sera could detect tetracycline, chlortetracycline, and oxytetracycline residues in meat and milk, with adequate sensitivity (19). 

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