Rapid Immunochemical Methods for Anatoxin-a Monitoring in Environmental Water Samples

Anal Chem. 2022 Aug 2;94(30):10857-10864. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.2c01939. Epub 2022 Jul 19.

Abstract

Algal blooms that contaminate freshwater resources with cyanotoxins constitute, nowadays, a global concern. To deal with this problem, a variety of analytical methods, including immunochemical assays, are available for the main algal toxins, for example, microcystins, nodularins, and saxitoxins, with the remarkable exception of anatoxin-a. Now, for the first time, highly sensitive, enantioselective immunoassays for anatoxin-a have been validated using homemade monoclonal antibodies. Two competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays were developed in different formats, with detection limits for (+)-anatoxin-a of 0.1 ng/mL. Excellent recovery values between 82 and 117%, and coefficients of variation below 20%, were observed using environmental water samples fortified between 0.5 and 500 ng/mL. In addition, a lateral-flow immunochromatographic assay was optimized for visual and instrumental reading of results. This test showed a visual detection limit for (+)-anatoxin-a of 4 ng/mL. Performance with a reader was validated in accordance with the European guidelines for semiquantitative rapid methods for small chemical contaminants. Thus, at a screening target concentration of 2 ng/mL, the probability of a blank sample to be classified as "suspect" was as low as 0.2%. Finally, the optimized direct enzyme immunoassay was validated by comparison with high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectroscopy data and showed a good correlation (r = 0.995) with a slope of 0.94. Moreover, environmental water samples containing more than 2 ng/mL of anatoxin-a were detected by the developed dipstick assay. These results provide supplementary and complementary strategies for monitoring the presence of anatoxin-a in water.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Bacterial Toxins* / chemistry
  • Cyanobacteria Toxins
  • Cyanobacteria* / chemistry
  • Environmental Monitoring / methods
  • Marine Toxins / analysis
  • Microcystins / analysis
  • Tropanes / analysis
  • Water / analysis

Substances

  • Bacterial Toxins
  • Cyanobacteria Toxins
  • Marine Toxins
  • Microcystins
  • Tropanes
  • Water
  • anatoxin a