Cross-reactivity of steroid hormone immunoassays: clinical significance and two-dimensional molecular similarity prediction.

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Abstract

Immunoassays are widely used in clinical laboratories for measurement of plasma/serum concentrations of steroid hormones such as cortisol and testosterone. Immunoassays can be performed on a variety of standard clinical chemistry analyzers, thus allowing even small clinical laboratories to do analysis on-site. One limitation of steroid hormone immunoassays is interference caused by compounds with structural similarity to the target steroid of the assay. Interfering molecules include structurally related endogenous compounds and their metabolites as well as drugs such as anabolic steroids and synthetic glucocorticoids.

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Molecular similarity: a key technique in molecular informatics.

Andreas Bender, Robert C Glen (2004)

Molecular Informatics utilises many ideas and concepts to find relationships between molecules. The concept of similarity, where molecules may be grouped according to their biological effects or physicochemical properties has found extensive use in drug discovery. Some areas of particular interest have been in lead discovery and compound optimisation. For example, in designing libraries of compounds for lead generation, one approach is to design sets of compounds "similar" to known active compounds in the hope that alternative molecular structures are found that maintain the properties required while enhancing e.g. patentability, medicinal chemistry opportunities or even in achieving optimised pharmacokinetic profiles. Thus the practical importance of the concept of molecular similarity has grown dramatically in recent years. The predominant users are pharmaceutical companies, employing similarity methods in a wide range of applications e.g. virtual screening, estimation of absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity (ADME/Tox) and prediction of physicochemical properties (solubility, partitioning etc.). In this perspective, we discuss the representation of molecular structure (descriptors), methods of comparing structures and how these relate to measured properties. This leads to the concept of molecular similarity, its various definitions and uses and how these have evolved in recent years. Here, we wish to evaluate and in some cases challenge accepted views and uses of molecular similarity. Molecular similarity, as a paradigm, contains many implicit and explicit assumptions in particular with respect to the prediction of the binding and efficacy of molecules at biological receptors. The fundamental observation is that molecular similarity has a context which both defines and limits its use. The key issues of solvation effects, heterogeneity of binding sites and the fundamental problem of the form of similarity measure to use are addressed.

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Advantages and challenges of mass spectrometry assays for steroid hormones.

Frank Z. Stanczyk, Nigel J. Clarke (2010)

Although steroid hormones have been measured, primarily in urine, by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) assays for many years, in the past decade both clinical and research laboratories have dramatically increased usage of liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) assays for measuring circulating levels of steroid hormones. Because of their high validity and throughput, mass spectrometry (MS) assays have replaced conventional radioimmunoassays (RIAs) and direct immunoassays for steroid hormones in larger reference laboratories, and they are touted to become the "gold standard" for steroid hormone quantitation. These advances in MS assays present several major challenges, which include the affordability of smaller laboratories to purchase MS instruments and pay for related operating costs; improving assay sensitivity, especially for measuring low estradiol levels in postmenopausal women and women treated with aromatase inhibitors; developing assays for quantitating profiles of steroid hormone metabolites in serum and tissues; standardizing steroid MS assays; and obtaining reliable reference intervals. The present review discusses the advantages of MS assays over conventional RIAs and direct immunoassays in steroid hormone measurements, and points out some of the important challenges facing the rapid increase in usage of MS assays. Copyright 2010. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

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Clinical steroid mass spectrometry: a 45-year history culminating in HPLC-MS/MS becoming an essential tool for patient diagnosis.

Cedric Shackleton (2010)

Automated rapid HPLC tandem mass spectrometry has become the method of choice for clinical steroid analysis. It is replacing immunoassay techniques in most instances because it has high sensitivity, better reproducibility, greater specificity and can be used to analyze multiple steroids simultaneously. Modern multiplex instruments can analyze thousands of samples per month so even with high instrument costs the price of individual assays can be affordable. The mass spectrometry of steroids goes back decades; the first on-line chromatography/mass spectrometry methods for hormone analysis date to the 1960s. This paper reviews the evolution of mass spectrometric techniques applied to sterol and steroid measurement There have been three eras: (1) gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS), (2) Fast Atom Bombardment (FAB) and (3) HPLC/MS. The first technique is only suitable for unconjugated steroids, the second for conjugated, and the third equally useful for free or conjugated. FAB transformed biological mass spectrometry in the 1980s but in the end was an interim technique; GC/MS retains unique qualities but is unsuited to commercial routine analysis, while LC-MS/MS is rightly stealing the show and has become the dominant method for steroid analysis in endocrinology. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): BMC Clin Pathol

Title: BMC clinical pathology

Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

ISSN: 1472-6890

ISSN (Print): 1472-6890

Publication date (Electronic): 2014

Volume: 14

Affiliations

[1 ] Department of Pathology, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, 200 Hawkins Drive, C-671 GH, Iowa, IA 52242, USA.

[2 ] Department of Pathology, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, 200 Hawkins Drive, C-671 GH, Iowa, IA 52242, USA ; Department of Pathology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.

[3 ] Collaborations in Chemistry, Fuquay-Varina, NC 27526, USA.

Article

Publisher Item ID: 1472-6890-14-33

DOI: 10.1186/1472-6890-14-33

PMC ID: 4112981

PubMed ID: 25071417

SO-VID: 0950a68a-d7cb-45f4-84c7-8d9d51348bac

History

Keywords: Anabolic agents,Estradiol,Glucocorticoids,Immunoassays,Progesterone,Similarity,Testosterone

Data availability:

Keywords: Anabolic agents, Estradiol, Glucocorticoids, Immunoassays, Progesterone, Similarity, Testosterone

Cross-reactivity of steroid hormone immunoassays: clinical significance and two-dimensional molecular similarity prediction.

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Genomic Prediction

Most cited references 58

Molecular similarity: a key technique in molecular informatics.

Advantages and challenges of mass spectrometry assays for steroid hormones.

Clinical steroid mass spectrometry: a 45-year history culminating in HPLC-MS/MS becoming an essential tool for patient diagnosis.

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