Highly efficient detection of deoxynivalenol and zearalenone in the aqueous environment based on nanoenzyme-mediated lateral flow immunoassay combined with smartphone

• Published in: Journal of environmental chemical engineering 2023-10, Vol.11 (5), p.110494, Article 110494
• Main Authors: Li, Weibin, Wang, Zedong, Wang, Xinwei, Cui, Li, Huang, Wenyuan, Zhu, Zhaoyong, Liu, Zhenjiang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aqueous environment; Deoxynivalenol and zearalenone; Lateral flow immunoassay; Nanozyme; Smartphone
• ISSN: 2213-3437
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jece.2023.110494

Deoxynivalenol (DON) and zearalenone (ZEN) pose a serious threat to human health, and have been frequently detected in the aqueous environment. To protect consumers from the harm of mycotoxins, a nanozyme-mediated multiplexed lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) integrated with a smartphone was developed for rapid, highly sensitive and simultaneous quantitative detection of DON and ZEN in the aqueous environment. Highly efficient peroxidase mimicking core-shell Au@Pt nanozymes were synthesized by one-pot method, and then used as signal amplification to highly improve sensitivity of the detection, while a smartphone-based quantitative detection device could rapidly quantify results to improve the detection efficiency of the LIFA for on-site detection. After optimization, the detection time of the assay was 10 min, and the detection limits of the LIFA for DON/ZEN were 0.24/0.04 ng/mL, which were improved 416 and 150 folds compared to the conventional gold nanoparticles (GNPs)-based LFIA. Moreover, there was no obvious cross-reaction with other related mycotoxins, indicating that LFIA had a high specificity. The average recoveries of DON and ZEN from corn, wheat and three water samples were obtained from 94.3 % to 107.9 % with relative standard deviations of 0.2–7.6 %. Furthermore, the accuracy and reliability of the LIFA were evaluated with three spiked water samples, and the results presented good correlations with analytic results from the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (R2 =0.988 for DON, and 0.983 for ZEN). The results indicate the proposed LIFA was potentially a rapid, on-site simultaneous and highly sensitive method for DON and ZEN detection in the aqueous environment. [Display omitted] •An efficient detection method was established for deoxynivalenol and zearalenone in the aqueous environment.•The self-developed quantitative detection equipment can realize the on-site quantitative detection of mycotoxins.•The Au@Pt/AEC-based LFIA can significantly improve detection sensitivity compared to the conventional GNPs-based LFIA.