A high-throughput diagnostic method for measuring human exposure to organophosphorus nerve agents.

An automated high-throughput immunomagnetic separation (IMS) method for diagnosing exposure to the organophosphorus nerve agents (OPNAs) sarin (GB), cyclohexylsarin (GF), VX, and Russian VX (RVX) was developed to increase sample processing capacity for emergency response applications. Diagnosis of exposure to OPNAs was based on the formation of OPNA adducts to butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE). Data reported with this method represent a ratio of the agent-specific BuChE adduct concentration, relative to the total BuChE peptide concentration that provides a nonactivity measurement expressed as percent adducted. All magnetic bead transfer steps and washes were performed using instrumentation in a 96-well format allowing for simultaneous extraction of 86 clinical samples plus reference materials. Automating extractions increased sample throughput 50-fold, as compared to a previously reported manual method. The limits of detection, determined using synthetic peptides, were 1 ng/mL for unadducted BuChE and GB-, GF...