Antisera Raised Against the Drug Imipramine

Abstract
Antisera against 2-aminoimipramine covalently coupled to albumin have been raised in two rabbits. Both antisera bind imipramine and related tricyclic compounds as if to a single class of sites with high affinity and high litres. Displacement/inhibition assays showed that the affinities of various tricyclic compounds for the antisera showed a good correlation with the affinities of these drugs for the tricyclic antidepressant inhibitory sites on plasma-membrane 5-hydroxytryptamine carriers of human platelets and rat brain cortex. 5-Hydroxytryptamine and 5-hy-droxytryptamine-uptake-selective drugs did not inhibit [3H]imipramine binding to antisera. The anti-imipramine antibodies were purified using imipramine-Sepharose affinity chromatography and were shown to be IgG class by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and protein A-Sepharose precipitation.