Testing Urine

Detections from urine testing

• hormones like hCG (preganancy)

• Drugs and their breakdown products

• Proteins, glucose, and signs of kidney damage

Monoclonal antibodies

• identical copies of a single antibody

• Designed to bind to one specific target

Making monoclonal antibodies

• B-cells from an immunised animals’s spleen are fused with myeloma (cancer) cells

• Creates hybridoma cells that multiply easily

• Produces large amounts of the desired antibody

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Pregnancy testing

• hCG release

  • After conception the embryo produces hCG

  • Enters the mother’s blood stream and urine

• Antibody binding

  • Test strip contains monoclonal antibodies that bind specifically to hCG

  • If present they attach and move up the strip with a blue bead tag

• Line formation

  • The hCG antibody complex gets trapped at a test line to from a visible blue line

  • A second control line confirms the test worked

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Pregnancy vs drug testing

• pregnancy testing

  • Immunoassay using monoclonal antibodies to detect hCG in urine

• Drug testing

  • Monoclonal antibodies detect drug metabolites

  • Results confirmed by gas chromatography or mass spectrometry