Development of sensitive and rapid immunoassays for Moniliformin (MON) detection based on nanomaterials labeled monoclonal antibodies

Moniliformin (MON) is a toxic secondary metabolite from Fusarium species. The natural contamination of MON in cereals and cereal by-products, poses a risk of exposure to MON. However, so far, no immunoassay method has been reported to detect MON in field samples. In this study, anti-MON monoclonal antibody (mAb) with high affinity (1 × 10⁸) and isotype of IgG1 was subjected to establish indirect competitive ELISA (ic-ELISA) and immunochromatographic test strips (ICTS). The optimized ic-ELISA resulted in the lowest detection limit (LOD) of 1.55 μg/mL. The LOD value for gold nanoparticles (AuNP) -based test strip was 0.83 μg/mL. The multi branched gold nano-flower particles (AuNFs) reported higher sensitivity with LOD of 0.38 μg/mL. Moreover, the developed test strips exhibited a high specificity without cross-reactivity to related competitive toxins. In conclusion, immunoassay methods were successfully developed to detect MON in field samples with a short detection time to ensure food security.

ELISA; Immunochromatographic test strip; Moniliformin; Monoclonal antibody.