Quantitative Detection of Fipronil and Fipronil-Sulfone in Sera of Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs and Rats after Oral Exposure to Fipronil by Camel Single-Domain Antibody-Based Immunoassays

Anal Chem. 2019 Jan 15;91(2):1532-1540. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.8b04653. Epub 2018 Dec 21.

Abstract

The insecticide fipronil can be metabolized to its sulfone in mammalian species. Two camel single-domain antibodies (VHHs) F1 and F6, selective to fipronil and fipronil-sulfone, respectively, were generated and used to develop enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) for the detection of the two compounds in the sera of black-tailed prairie dogs and rats. The limits of detection of fipronil and fipronil-sulfone in the rodent sera by the corresponding ELISAs were 10 and 30 ng mL-1, and the linear ranges were 30-1000 and 75-2200 ng mL-1. ELISAs showed a good recovery for fipronil and fipronil-sulfone cospiked in the control sera of the black-tailed prairie dogs (90-109%) and rats (93-106%). The VHH-based ELISAs detected fipronil and fipronil-sulfone in the sera of the rodents that received a repeated oral administration of fipronil. The average concentration of fipronil-sulfone was approximately 3.2-fold higher than fipronil in the prairie dog sera (1.15 vs 0.36 μg mL-1) and rat sera (1.77 vs 0.53 μg mL-1). ELISAs agreed well with a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry method for the quantification of both fipronil and fipronil-sulfone in real serum samples. Fipronil-sulfone was identified as the predominant metabolite of fipronil in the black-tailed prairie dog and rat sera.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Administration, Oral
  • Animals
  • Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / methods*
  • Immunization
  • Insecticides / administration & dosage
  • Insecticides / blood*
  • Insecticides / immunology
  • Insecticides / metabolism
  • Pyrazoles / administration & dosage
  • Pyrazoles / blood*
  • Pyrazoles / immunology
  • Pyrazoles / metabolism
  • Rats
  • Sciuridae
  • Single-Domain Antibodies / immunology*

Substances

  • Insecticides
  • Pyrazoles
  • Single-Domain Antibodies
  • fipronil sulfone
  • fipronil