Determination of prostacyclin in plasma through a bioluminescent immunoassay for 6-keto-prostaglandin F_1α: Implication of dosage in patients with primary pulmonary hypertension

This work describes a solid-phase immunoassay for 6-keto-prostaglandin F_1α, the stable hydrolysis product of prostacyclin (prostaglandin I₂). Prostacyclin, a potent vasodilator with antiplatelet and antiproliferative properties is an effective treatment for primary pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary arterial hypertension associated with scleroderma and scleroderma-like syndrome. Levels of 6-keto-prostaglandin F_1α can be directly correlated with levels of prostacyclin. Therefore, 6-ketoprostaglandin F_1α has become the indicator of choice to measure prostacyclin levels. The single-step immunoassay for 6-keto-prostaglandin F_1α reported here was developed using the bioluminescent protein aequorin as a label. Analyte-label conjugates were constructed by linking the carboxyl group of 6-keto-prostaglandin F_1α and lysine residues of aequorin by chemical conjugation methods. The binding properties of 6-keto-prostaglandin F_1α toward its antibody and the bioluminescent properties of aequorin were retained in the conjugate, which was then used to generate a dose-response curve for the analyte in a convenient microtiter plate format. The concentration of 6-keto-prostaglandin F_1α after extraction from plasma showed good correlation with the concentration of 6-ketoprostaglandin F_1α obtained without prior extraction of the same plasma sample. This measurement demonstrated that the assay allows the measurement of 6-keto-prostaglandin F_1α directly in plasma without any pretreatment of the samples, which results in a much simpler method with a faster assay time.