Standard Practice for Measurement of the Biological Activity of Ricin

Importancia y uso:

5.1 The CFT assay provides a sensitive and reliable method to detect ricin biological activity and results can be generated within 3 h. The assay measures the amount of ricin biological activity when compared to a known ricin standard and provides a quantitative measurement for active ricin.

5.2 The lower limit of quantitation and the upper limit of quantitation for ricin using the CFT assay were measured at 10 ng/mL and 170 ng/mL, respectively (5).

5.3 This practice is focused on the measurement of reference materials and not environmental samples. Additional control runs may be needed for measurements of environmental samples to ensure that the presence of additional materials in the samples (also referred to as the matrix) will not interfere with the measurements.

5.4 The CFT assay may be used to determine the presence of active ricin in forensic or bioterrorist samples if the appropriate controls are utilized to ensure valid results (5).

5.5 The methods described in this document measure the biological activity of ricin and do not detect the presence of inactivated ricin in a given sample.

5.6 Ricin reference materials have a number of applications, such as testing detection devices, laboratory instruments, environmental sampling methods, disinfection studies, and basic research.

Subcomité:

E54.01

Volúmen:

15.08

Número ICS:

07.080 (Biology. Botany. Zoology), 11.100.20 (Biological evaluation of medical devices)

Palabras clave:

biodefense; biological activity; cell culture; cell free translation (CFT) assay; enzymatic activity; forensic test; ricin; toxin;