United Kingdom (UK)
Recombinant monoclonal antibody to Caffeine. Manufactured using AbAb’s Recombinant Platform with variable regions (i.e. specificity) from the camel peripheral blood lymphocytes VSA2.
Alternative Name(s) of Target: C8H10N4O2; guaranine; methyltheobromine; 1 3 7-Trimethylxanthine; 7-methyltheophylline; theine theophylline; theobromine; paraxanthine; CHEBI:27732; α-Caff-A
Immunogen: The original antibody was generated by immunizing camelid species (llama and camel)) with caffeine-KLH conjugate. The peripheral blood lymphocytes from the camels was used to generate VHH phage display libraries and the particular clones was isolated by screening the library against caffeine-BSA conjugate.
Specificity: This antibody binds caffeine and has low affinity for compounds like theophylline, theobromine and paraxanthine. Caffeine is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant of the methylxanthine class. The best-known source of caffeine is the coffee bean, the seed of the Coffea plant. It is present in drinks like coffee, tea and colas.
Application Notes: This antibody is highly heat stable and is shown to recover its reactivity after exposure to temperatures up to 90 degrees C. This antibody was able to bind caffeine at 70 degrees C. The binding reactivity of this antibody for caffeine and other compounds like theophylline, theobromine and paraxanthine was determined using ELISA (PMID: 16808459; 19560409; US7615218). A competition caffeine ELISA was developed for the measurement of caffeine content in beverages like coffee, Coca-Cola and Diet Coke. This antibody is capable of removing caffeine from coffee and furthermore can remove caffeine from even “decaffeinated” coffee (PMID: 16808459; US7615218).
Antibody first published in:
Ladenson et al. Isolation and characterization of a thermally stable recombinant anti-caffeine heavy-chain antibody fragment. Anal Chem. 2006 Jul 1;78(13):4501-8. PMID:16808459
Note on publication:
Describes the generation and characterization of this antibody.