Shionogi Company Limited

Shionogi Seiyaku Kabushiki Kaisha

Ken Inouye

Masao Kono

Akira Yamauchi

Masaru Shin

Ken'ichi Igano

Akira Ueda

Masuhisa Nakamura

Nobuo Yoshida

Tadashi Okabayashi

Kenichi Igano

Tetsuo Tsuji

Kunio Watanabe

A hybridoma producing a monoclonal antibody recognizing the C-terminus of human brain natriuretic peptide (hBNP) was cultivated in a medium or the abdominal cavity of a mouse to recover the monoclonal antibody from the medium or ascites accumulated in the abdominal cavity. An immunoassay for hBNP was established using the monoclonal antibody. The immunoassay for hBNP of the invention is so sensitive that the minimum detection limit is 1 pg/ml and can therefore determine the hBNP level in blood plasma directly, without the extraction of hBNP from blood plasma. It is useful for diagnosing diseases such as hypertension and the like, and states of the heart, kidney, and the like by using the increase/decrease of the hBNP level as an index.

Monoclonal antibody recognizing C-terminus of hBNP

The radioactive iodine compound of this invention or an intermediate for preparing the compound is represented by the following formula (I): ##STR1## wherein R is H or .sup.125 I. The radioactive compound can readily introduce a radioactive isotope element such as .sup.125 I into an antibody molecule without damaging the activity of the antibody molecule. Therefore, the compound can preferably be used to label an antibody of immunoradiometric assay, and allow a higher degree of measurement sensitivity.

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Hyogo, Japan

Ken Inouye