Production of antibody and development of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for therapeutic drug monitoring of eravacycline

Eravacycline (ERC) was approved for clinical use in 2018. It is more potent than other tetracyclines and can overcome resistance, making it an attractive option for combating multidrug-resistant bacterial infections. Intensive pharmacokinetic (PK) studies are currently being conducted to ensure the effectiveness and safety of ERC in various groups of patients, including those undergoing extracorporeal therapies. This study is the first attempt to develop a simple, efficient, and high-throughput immunoassay for quantifying ERC in human or animal serum. BSA-ERC conjugate as immunogen elicited antibody production in rabbits. Monitoring of the immune response and comparison of homologous and heterologous coating antigens allowed selection of immunoreagents and development of an assay that was selective for ERC possessing sensitivity (IC50), dynamic range (IC20-IC80) and detection limit equal to 3.3 ng/mL, 0.27–54 ng/mL and 0.09 ng/mL, respectively. The developed ELISA showed acceptable recovery of ERC (85–105 %) from rabbit and human serum in the clinically relevant concentration range of 0.1–3.0 mg/L. The method was used to quantify serum ERC concentration in the pilot PK study in Soviet chinchilla rabbits. The results were confirmed by HPLC-MS/MS. •BSA-ERC immunogen induced highly specific antibody to eravacycline in rabbits.•For the first time, an immunoassay has been developed to quantify eravacycline.•ERC at 0.1–3.0 mg/L range was recovered from human and rabbit serum as 85–105 %.•Pilot pharmacokinetic study in rabbits was conducted using developed ELISA.•Concentration measurements were confirmed by HPLC–MS/MS