A highly sensitive, specific, simple, and rapid chemiluminescence enzyme immunoassay (CLEIA) was developed for the determination of microcystin-LR (MC-LR) by using strategies for oriented immobilization of functionally intact polyclonal antibodies on chitosan surface. Several physicochemical parameters such as metal ion adsorption, hexahistidine-tagged Protein G sorption, the dilution ratio polyclonal antibody concentration, and peroxidase-labeled MC-LR concentration were studied and optimized. The sorption in batch system of G-histidine and G-proteins was studied on a novel sorbent consisting of chitosan/divalent metal ions. Transition metals as Ni++ and Zn++ were immobilized through interaction with -NH2 groups of chitosan in order to supply a material capable to efficiently remove the proteins from aqueous solutions. The maximum uptake of divalent metals onto the chitosan material was found to be 230 mg g-1 for Zn++ and 62 mg g-1 for Ni++. Experimental data were evaluated using the Langmuir and Freundlich models; the results were well fitted with the Langmuir model; chitosan/Ni++ foam was found to be the best sorbent for G-protein, maximum sorption capacity obtained was 17 mg g-1, and chitosan/Zn++ was found to be the best for G-histidine with a maximum sorption capacity of 44 mg g-1. Kinetic data was evaluated with pseudo-first- and pseudo-second-order models; the sorption kinetics were in all cases better represented by a pseudo-second-order model. Under optimum conditions, the calibration curve obtained for MC-LR gave detection limits of 0.5 ± 0.06 μg L-1, the 50 % inhibition concentration (IC50) was 2.75 ± 0.03 μg L-1, and the quantitative detection range was 0.5-25 μg L-1. The limit of detection (LOD) attained from the calibration curves and the results obtained demonstrate the potential use of CLEIA with chitosan support as a screening tool for the analysis of pollutants in environmental samples.
Keywords: Affinity tag; Antibody orientation; Chitosan; Microcystin-LR; Protein G.