Rapid and sensitive detection of zearalenone in corn using SERS-based lateral flow immunosensor

Limei Yin; Tianyan You; Hesham R El-Seedi; Islam M El-Garawani; Zhiming Guo; Xiaobo Zou; Jianrong Cai

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.133707

Rapid and sensitive detection of zearalenone in corn using SERS-based lateral flow immunosensor

Food Chem. 2022 Dec 1:396:133707. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.133707. Epub 2022 Jul 16.

Authors

Limei Yin¹, Tianyan You², Hesham R El-Seedi³, Islam M El-Garawani⁴, Zhiming Guo⁵, Xiaobo Zou⁵, Jianrong Cai⁶

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Modern Agricultural Equipment and Technology, Ministry of Education, School of Agricultural Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China; School of Food and Biological Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China. Electronic address: yinlm6@163.com.
² Key Laboratory of Modern Agricultural Equipment and Technology, Ministry of Education, School of Agricultural Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China.
³ Pharmacognosy Group, Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, BMC, Uppsala University, Box 591, SE-751 24 Uppsala, Sweden.
⁴ Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Menoufia University, Menoufia 32511, Egypt.
⁵ School of Food and Biological Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China; International Joint Research Laboratory of Intelligent Agriculture and Agri-products Processing (Jiangsu University), Jiangsu Education Department, Zhenjiang 212013, China.
⁶ School of Food and Biological Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China. Electronic address: jrcai@ujs.edu.cn.

PMID: 35853376
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.133707

Abstract

Zearalenone (ZEN) is a universal mycotoxin contaminant in corn and its products. A surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) based test strip was proposed for the detection of ZEN, which had the advantages of simplicity, rapidity, and high sensitivity. Core-shell Au@AgNPs with embedded reporter molecules (4-MBA) were synthesized as SERS nanoprobe, which exhibited excellent SERS signals and high stability. The detection range of ZEN for corn samples was 10-1000 μg/kg with the limit of detection (LOD) of 3.6 μg/kg, which is far below the recommended tolerable level (60 μg/kg). More importantly, the SERS method was verified by HPLC in the application on corn samples contaminated with ZEN, and the coincidence rates were in the range of 86.06%-111.23%, suggesting a high accuracy of the SERS assay. Therefore, the SERS-based test strip with an analysis time of less than 15 min is a promising tool for accurate and rapid detection of ZEN-field contamination.

Keywords: Core-shell nanoparticles; Immunosensor; Lateral flow; Quantitative detection; Surface-enhanced Raman scattering; Zearalenone.

MeSH terms

Biosensing Techniques*
Gold
Immunoassay
Limit of Detection
Metal Nanoparticles*
Spectrum Analysis, Raman / methods
Zea mays
Zearalenone* / analysis

Substances

Zearalenone
Gold