Development and evaluation of the magnetic particle-based chemiluminescence immunoassay for rapid and quantitative detection of Aflatoxin B1 in foodstuff

Herein, a simple and cost-effective chemiluminescence immunoassay combined with the magnetic particles (MPCLIA) is presented for the rapid detection and analysis of Aflatoxin B1, which is a potent carcinogen found in the environment. Several physicochemical factors that potentially influence the assay performance of the proposed method were investigated in detail, including concentrations of FITC-labelled antibody, AFB1-alkaline phosphatase and magnetic particles concentration. Under the optimized experiment condition, the method showed: (i) a low limit detection of 0.05 ng/mL; (ii) satisfactory recoveries in real grain and oil samples ranging from 78% to 109%, which was well within the requirement of residue analysis, and (iii) excellent sensitivity, wide dynamic range and easy to separate in the washing process, which was superior to enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. In addition, the device used is of low cost. Moreover, the MPCLIA results for the real samples were in good agreement with that obtained by the high-performance liquid chromatography. These results suggest that the proposed MPCLIA method has potential application for screening other toxic mycotoxins occur in the food industry or other applied fields.