Polyether polyamines as linking agents for particle reagents useful in immunoassays

Claim 1

A particle reagent consisting essentially of: (A) a polymer particle having an inner core and an outer shell wherein the inner core is a polymer having a refractive index of not less than 1.54 as measured at the wavelength of the sodium D line and wherein the outer shell is a polymer of (1) an ethylenically unsaturated monomer having a functional group selected from the group consisting of epoxy, carboxy, and aldehyde, said functional group capable of reacting with a hydrophilic polymeric linker; and (2) not more than 10 parts by weight of the outer shell of the monomers of the inner core, said outer shell being formed by polymerization in the presence of said inner core; and wherein said polymer particle has an approximate diameter range of 0.03-0.1 μm and is covalently attached to (B) a compound of biological interest through a hydrophilic polymeric linker of empirical formula: H[NHC.sub.2 H.sub.3 R(OC.sub.2 H.sub.3 R).sub.x OC.sub.2 H.sub.3 R].sub.y NH.sub.2 wherein R is at least one member selected from the group consisting of H and CH 3 , x is 0-70 and y is 1-20.

Claim 9

A method for measuring compounds of biological interest comprising the steps of: (A) incubating (1) a particle reagent having high refractive index consisting essentially of: (a) a polymer particle having an inner core and an outer shell wherein the inner core is a polymer having a refractive index of not less than 1.54 as measured at the wavelength of the sodium D line and wherein the outer shell is a polymer of (i) an ethylenically unsaturated monomer having a functional group selected from the group consisting of epoxy, carboxyl, and aldehyde, said functional group capable of reacting with a hydrophilic polymeric linker; and (ii) not more than 10 parts by weight of the outer shell of the monomers of the inner core, said outer shell being formed by polymerization in the presence of said inner core; and wherein said polymer particle has an approximate diameter range of 0.03-0.1 μm; covalently attached to (b) the compound of biological interest through a hydrophilic polymeric linker of empirical formula H[NHC.sub.2 H.sub.3 R(OC.sub.2 H.sub.3 R).sub.x OC.sub.2 H.sub.3 R].sub.y NH.sub.2 wherein R is at least one member selected from the group consisting of H and CH 3 , x is 0-70 and y is 1-20, (2) a liquid suspected of containing the compound of biological interest; and (3) an agglutinating agent; and (B) photometrically measuring increased particle size resulting from agglutination.

Claim 10

A method for measuring compounds of biological interest comprising the steps of: (A) incubating (1) a particle reagent having high refractive index consisting essentially of: (a) a polymer particle having an inner core and an outer shell wherein the inner core is a polymer having a refractive index of not less than 1.54 as measured at the wavelength of the sodium D line and wherein the outer shell is a polymer of (i) an ethylenically unsaturated monomer having a functional group selected from the group consisting of epoxy, carboxyl, and aldehyde, said functional group capable of reacting with a hydrophilic polymeric linker; and (ii) not more than 10 parts by weight of the outer shell of the monomers of the inner core, said outer shell being formed by polymerization in the presence of said inner core; and wherein said polymer particle has an approximate diameter range of 0.03-0.1 μm; covalently attached to (b) the compound of biological interest through a hydrophilic polymeric linker of empirical formula H[NHC.sub.2 H.sub.3 R(OC.sub.2 H.sub.3 R).sub.x OC.sub.2 H.sub.3 R].sub.y NH.sub.2 wherein R is at least one member selected from the group consisting of H and CH 3 , x is 0-70 and y is 1-20, (2) a liquid suspected of containing the compound of biological interest; and (3) an agglutinating agent; and (B) photometrically measuring increased particle size resulting from agglutination.