Toxins and antibodies of C. difficile

Claim 2

Antibody specific for toxins of C. difficile.

Claim 3

Mono-specific antibody for toxin A of C.

Claim 4

Mono-specific antibody for toxin A of C.

Claim 5

Mono-specific antibody for toxin B of C. dificile.

Claim 6

Mono-specific antibody for toxin B of C. dificile.

Claim 7

A composition comprising a solid support sensitized with an antibody as defined in Claim 1, 2 or 3.

Claim 8

An assay for toxigenic C. difficile, toxin A of C. difficile or toxin B of C. difficile, wherein an analyte is contacted with an antibody as defined respectively in claim 1, 2 or 3 to bind only C. difficile toxins, the toxin A or the toxin B, as the case may be.

Claim 9

An assay according to claim 5 wherein the antibody to C. difficile is supported on a solid support, the supported C. difficile antibody is contacted with the analyte to bind C difficile antigen to the supported C. difficile antibody and subsequently the bound antigen is contacted with mono-specific antibody in a labelled form and the presence of said toxin is determined by detecting the presence of bound label.

Claim 10

An assay according to claim 6 wherein the label is an enzyme label.

Claim 11

An assay according to claim 7, wherein the enzyme label is an alkaline phosphatase.

Claim 12

An assay according to claim 6, 7 or 8 wherein the antibody to C. difficile is supported on a solid support, the supported C. difficile antibody is contacted with analyte to bind the C. difficile antigen to the C. difficile antibody, the antigen is contacted with mono-specific antibody to bind mono-specific antibody to the toxin of the'bound antigen, subsequently bound mono-specific antibody is contacted with a labelled form of antibody for the mono-specific antibody, and the presence of the toxin is determined by detecting the presence of bound label.

Claim 13

A process for providing antibodies specific for toxins of C. difficile, comprising: contacting C. difficile antibody, which includes antibodies specific for toxins of C. difficile, antibody to non-toxic protein antigen and antibody to non-toxic heat stable antigen, with non-toxic C. difficile protein antigen to bind antibody to non-toxic protein antigen thereto; contacting said C. difficile antibody free of antibody to non-toxic protein antigen with a non-toxic heat stable antigen of C, difficile to bind the antibody for the non-toxic heat stable antigen thereto; and recovering antibody specific for toxins of C. difficile.

Claim 14

A process for providing antibodies specific for toxins of C. difficile, comprising: contacting C. difficile antibody, which includes antibodies specific for toxins of C. difficile, antibody to non-toxic protein antigen and antibody to non-toxic heat stable antigen, with non-toxic C. difficile protein antigen to bind antibody to non-toxic protein antigen thereto; contacting said C. difficile antibody free of antibody to non-toxic protein antigen with a non-toxic heat stable antigen of C, difficile to bind the antibody for the non-toxic heat stable antigen thereto; and recovering antibody specific for toxins of C. difficile.

Claim 15

A process according to claim 10 wherein the non-toxic C. difficile protein antigen is in the form of whole cells of a non-toxic strain of C. difficile.

Claim 16

A process according to claim 10 or 11 wherein the non-toxic heat stable antigen of C. difficile is supported on a solid support.

Claim 17

A process according to claim 10. 11 or 12 for providing mono-specific antibody for toxin A or B of C. difficile, further comprising contacting the recovered antibody specific for toxins of C. difficile with toxin A or B of C. difficile supported on a solid support to bind mono-specific antibody for toxin A or B thereto; and subsequently eluting mono-specific antibody for toxin A or B therefrom.