Tellurium-containing polymer for mass cytometry

Abstract

Mass cytometry is a powerful analytical technique for high-dimensional single-cell analysis. In this technique, cells are stained with heavy isotope-tagged antibodies and are analyzed by an inductively coupled plasma time-of-flight mass spectrometer. While the current mass cytometer has more than 100 mass channels, only about 50 are used because reagents are only available for a fraction of the useful elements. Here we describe the synthesis of a tellurium-containing polymer based on poly-l-lysine and sulfated tellurophene. The polymer carried ca. 48 tellurophene units per chain and had a terminal azide group for antibody conjugation. While the polymer could be conjugated to antibodies, the resulting conjugates gave mixed results in mass cytometry immunoassays. For example, a goat anti-mouse (secondary) antibody and an anti-CD19 primary Ab labeled with polymers gave promising results in antibody titration experiments. However, an anti-CD20 Ab labeled with a 126Te-enriched polymer no longer recognized the antigen and showed significant non-specific binding in a 7-plex assay with human PBMCs.