Development of a chemiluminescence immunoassay for detection of tenuazonic acid mycotoxin in fruit juices with a specific camel polyclonal antibody

• Published in: Analytical methods 2021-04, Vol.13 (15), p.1795-182
• Main Authors: Wang, Feng, Wan, De-Bin, Shen, Yu-Dong, Tian, Yuan-Xin, Xiao, Zhi-Li, Xu, Zhen-Lin, Yang, Jin-Yi, Sun, Yuan-Ming, Hammock, Bruce D, Wang, Hong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alternaria alternata; Antibodies; Chemiluminescence; Coefficient of variation; Cross-reactivity; Environmental monitoring; Enzyme immunoassay; Food; Food safety; Fruit juices; Fruits; Immunoassay; Immunoassays; Liquid chromatography; Mass spectrometry; Mass spectroscopy; Metabolites; Mycotoxins; Polyclonal antibodies; Sensitivity; Tenuazonic acid
• ISSN: 1759-9660; 1759-9679
• DOI: 10.1039/d1ay00200g

The natural mycotoxin tenuazonic acid (TeA) in foods is identified as the most toxic mycotoxin among the over 70 kinds of secondary toxic metabolites produced by Alternaria alternata . Some hapten-antibody-mediated immunoassays have been developed for TeA detection in food samples, but these methods show unsatisfactory sensitivity and specificity. In this study, a rationally designed hapten for TeA mycotoxin generated with computer-assisted modeling was prepared to produce a highly specific camel polyclonal antibody, and an indirect competitive chemiluminescence enzyme immunoassay (icCLEIA) was established with a limit of detection of 0.2 ng mL −1 under optimized conditions. The cross-reactivity results showed that several analogs and some common mycotoxins had negligible recognition by the anti-TeA polyclonal antibody. The average recoveries spiked in fruit juices were determined to be 92.7% with an acceptable coefficient of variation, and good correlations between icCLEIA and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) results were obtained in spiked samples. This developed icCLEIA for TeA detection with significantly improved sensitivity and satisfactory specificity is a promising alternative for environmental monitoring and food safety. A rationally designed hapten with computer-assisted modeling was applied for generation of specific camel polyclonal antibody against TeA mycotoxin, and a sensitive chemiluminescence immunoassay was developed for TeA detection in fruit juices.