The synthesis of metallocene-labelled drugs for biological assays

Several drugs (amphetamine, desipramine, nortriptyline, phenobarbital) have been labelled with metallocenic fragments in order to develop a new immunoassay method. The metallocenic fragments are cymantrenic or benchrotrenic derivatives: the linkage between the organic and organometallic moieties has been achieved by reactions between amino and acidic functional groups. All the products (metallohaptens), purified by different chromatography techniques, have been fully characterized by IR and 1H NMR spectroscopy and their mass spectra.