Uses for Radioimmunoassay

Radioimmunoassay (RIA) has many uses, including narcotics (drug) detection, blood bank screening
for the hepatitis a highly contagious condition virus, early cancer detection, measurement of growth
hormone levels, tracking of the leukemia virus, diagnosis and treatment of peptic ulcers, and
research with brain chemicals called neurotransmitters.

How Radioimmunoassay Works ?

As an example of how this technique works, let’s apply it to insulin. To measure insulin, the first step
is to mix known amounts of radioisotope-tagged insulin and antibodies. These combine chemically.
Next, a small amount of the patient’s blood is added. The insulin contained in the blood displaces
some of the tagged insulin. The free-tagged insulin is then measured with isotope detectors and the
patient’s insulin level is calculated.

Application Of Radioimmunoassay

1)Detection of Narcotic Drugs Heroin & Morphine can be detected in hair with the use of
Radioimmunoassay (RIA). In a research hair samples obtained from morphine treated mice and
heroin user contained Nano gram levels of drug per milligram of hair . The result of the hair analysis
for all subject admitting the use of heroin were positive where as the result of only 30% of thin layer
chromatographic urine analysis of these same subjects were positive.

2) Radioimmunoassay of Hydromorphone & Hydrocodone in Human Plasma Hydromorphone &

Hydrocodone belongs to morphine group of drugs and are used in combination with antitussive &
analgesic antipyretic mixture. The RIA method is capable of estimating the above drug within a range
of 2.5 to 20 ng/mL using standard 100 µl plasma sample. RIA is carried out using morphine-6-
antiserum & dihydromorphine. Free drug is separated from the bound drug using dextran coated
charcoal & an aliquot of the supinate containing the antiserum bound drug is subsequently counted
for radioactivity.

3) Radioimmunoassay of Flunisolide in human plasma Flunisolide is a fast-acting corticoid designed

for the treatment of allergic rhinitis, asthma, and other allied respiratory disorders in humans. As the
quantum of drug delivered by inhalation (i.e., the usual route of administration of the drug), is
invariably small, the plasma-levels attained can also be fairly small. Hence, there is a need for a
sensitive method of plasma concentration evaluation which is satisfied by radioimmunoassay.

4) Measurement of Ferritin Serum ferritin levels are indicative of iron stores present in a patient.
Levels are useful in differentiating true iron deficiency from the body's failure to utilize these stores.
5) Detection of Digoxin

This allows direct measurement of serum digoxin levels quickly and accurately. It is important to rule
out Digi toxicity quickly and accurately. We are also able to filter out Digi bind to let the physician
know how much the level has dropped after Digi bind has been administered.

6) Thyroid Testing This is used to determine the patient's thyroid status and to follow patients after
iodine-131 therapy to see if the dose was indeed effective.

Disadvantages of Radioimmunoassay

• Prolonged reaction time (in days) as a consequence highly diluted reagent is used.

• Radioisotopes are costly.

• Possible health hazards due to handling of radioisotopes.

• Limited assay range.

• Lack of direct linear relationship between analyte concentration and signal response.

• Difficult of automation.

• Lengthy counting time.

Reference :

Annett M. Baumgartner, Peter F. Jones, Warner A. Baumgartner & Charles T. Black. Review on
Radioimmunoassay of hair for determining opiate-abuse histories – The journal of nuclear medicine;
1979 P.748 - 752

Ibrahim A. Darvish. Review on Immunoassay methods and their application in pharmaceutical

analysis – International journal of biomedical science; 2006 P.217 - 220

Yalow R, Berson S - Immunoassay of endogenous plasma insulin in man;1960 P.39 – 115

Pharmaceutical Drug Analysis by Ashutosh Kar; 2005 P.485 - 504