Search

Fenitrothion (FN) residue in food is a serious threat to public health. Consequently, a sensitive, cost-effective, and convenient immunoassay for FN urgently needs to be fabricated to safeguard human health. Herein, a nanobody-alkaline phosphatase fusion protein (Nb-ALP)-based fluorescent ELISA using red emissive carbon dots (r-CDs) anchored cobalt oxyhydroxide nanosheet (CoOOH NS) composite was developed for detecting FN. Briefly, a Nb-ALP was obtained by autoinduction expression and employed as a recognition, signal transduction, and amplification element. As the fluorescence signal source, r-CDs were assembled with CoOOH NS to yield the r-CDs@CoOOH NS composite, leading to the fluorescence quenching of r-CDs via Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET). After competitive immunoreaction, the Nb-ALP bounded to the immobilized antigen can mediate the production of ascorbic acid, which can reduce the CoOOH NS to Co 2+ , breaking the FRET between r-CDs and CoOOH NS, accompanied by the fluorescence recovery of r-CDs. This fluorescent ELISA is highly sensitive to FN with a detection limit of 0.14 ng mL -1 , which is 25-fold lower than that of conventional colorimetric ELISAs. The recovery test of food samples and the validation by GC-MS/MS further demonstrated the proposed assay was an ideal tool for detecting FN., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A simple and sensitive fluoroimmunoassay (FIA) based on a heavy-chain antibody (VHH) for rapid detection of fenitrothion was developed. A VHH library was constructed from an immunized alpaca, and one clone recognizing fenitrothion (namely, VHHjd8) was achieved after careful biopanning. It was biotinylated by fusing with the Avi tag and biotin ligase to obtain a fusion protein (VHHjd8-BT), showing both binding capacity to fenitrothion and the streptavidin poly-horseradish peroxidase conjugate (SA-polyHRP). Based on a competitive assay format, the absorbance spectrum of oxidized 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine generated by SA-polyHRP overlapped the emission spectrum of carbon dots, which resulted in quenching of signals due to the inner-filter effect. The developed FIA showed an IC 50 value of 1.4 ng/mL and a limit of detection of 0.03 ng/mL, which exhibited 15-fold improvement compared with conventional enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The recovery test of FIA was validated by standard GC-MS/MS, and the results showed good consistency, indicating that the assay is an ideal tool for rapid screening of fenitrothion in bulk food samples.

Multicolor-based visual immunosensor is a promising tool for rapid analysis without the use of bulky instruments. Herein, an anti-fenitrothion nanobody-alkaline phosphatase fusion protein (VHHjd8-ALP) was employed to develop a multicolor visual immunosensor (MVIS) and a ratiometric fluorescence MVIS (RFMVIS, respectively). After one-step competitive immunoassay, the VHHjd8-ALP bound to microplate catalyzed phenyl phosphate disodium salt (ArP) into phenol. Under high alkaline condition (pH 12), the phenol reduced KMnO 4 to intermediate (K 2 MnO 4) and further to MnO 2 in alkaline condition (pH 12), accompanied by a visible color transition of purple-green-yellow, which can be used for semiquantitative visual analysis or qualitative detection by measuring RGB value. RFMVIS was proposed on the basis of MVIS to further improve sensitivity. The CdTe quantum dot and fluorescein were used as signal probes to develop the fluorescent immunosensor. The CdTe dots with red emission (644 nm) was quenched by oxidation of KMnO 4 , whereas the fluorescein with green emission (520 nm) remained constant, accompanied by a fluorescent color transition of green-yellow-red. By measuring the ratio of the fluorescence intensity (I 644 /I 520), the ratiometric fluorescence immunosensor was developed for qualitative analysis. The two visual immunosensors were sensitive and simple, and they showed good accuracy and practicability in the recovery test, thus are ideal tools for rapid screening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multicolor immunosensor is a promising tool for on-site rapid analysis by naked eye without bulky instruments. Herein, a multicolor immunosensor employed a specific nanobody-alkaline phosphatase fusion protein (VHHjd8-ALP) for biosensing of fenitrothion was developed. After one-step indirect competitive immunoassay, the binding VHHjd8-ALP in microplate catalyzed ascorbyl-2-phosphate (AAP) into ascorbic acid, which propose dual readout including multicolor ratiometric visible immunoassay (MRVIA) and multicolor ratiometric fluoroimmunoassay (MRFIA). For MRVIA, K 3 [Fe(CN) 6 ] and Fe3+ was employed for multicolor generation. The substrate AAP can chelate with Fe3+ to form orange AAP-Fe3+ complex. When ALP catalyzed AAP into ascorbic acid, the latter can reduced K 3 [Fe(CN) 6 ] into K 4 [Fe(CN) 6 ], which reacted with Fe3+ to produced Prussian blue via self-assembly. A visible color transition from orange to blue against fenitrothion was obtained. For MRFIA, the generated ascorbic acid etched MnO 2 nanosheet to control the concentration of Na 2 SO 3 , which can convert 9-anthraldehyde into sulfuretted anthracene accompanied by a fluorescent color transition from green to blue. These two methods showed visible multicolor transition against fenitrothion for naked-eye analysis. The recovery and blind samples test verified good accuracy and practicability, which can be used for rapid screening of fenitrothion by a naked-eye semiquantitative analysis mode. [Display omitted] • Multicolor immunoassays were achieved without precious-metal materials. • Color regulation relies on ratiometric changing of dual signals. • The VHHjd8-ALP-based strategy can develop a dual multicolor immunosensor. • They can be used for semiquantitative detection without complex apparatus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]