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Rapid detection of the neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid using a quenchbody assay

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Abstract

Contamination of the land and water by neonicotinoid insecticide residues is currently a severe environmental problem. However, the traditional methods for pesticide residue analysis are time consuming and laborious. To tackle this problem, here we describe a novel quenchbody (Q-body) immunoassay reagent that allows the rapid and sensitive detection of imidacloprid, one of the most frequently used neonicotinoid pesticides, in aqueous solution. A Q-body comprises an antibody Fab fragment that is site-specifically labeled with a fluorescent dye. The Fab fragment quenches the dye with its internal tryptophan residues via photoinduced electron transfer. The subsequent addition of imidacloprid stabilizes the antibody structure and displaces the quenched dye to the outside of the protein, resulting in increased fluorescence. The constructed Q-body assay exhibited a high dynamic range and a low limit of detection (10 ng mL−1), and the entire assay procedure could be completed in a few minutes. The assay showed a low cross-reactivity with possible interfering analogous compounds, indicating that it has a good selectivity. Hence, the developed Q-body assay has excellent potential as a universal technology for monitoring neonicotinoid residues in environmental and food samples.

A novel quenchbody (Q-body) immunoassay reagent that allows the rapid and sensitive detection of imidacloprid, one of the most frequently used neonicotinoid pesticides, in aqueous solution was developed. The addition of imidacloprid stabilizes the Q-body structure and displaces the quenched dye to the outside of the protein, resulting in increased fluorescence. The constructed Q-body assay exhibited a high dynamic range and a low limit of detection (10 ng mL−1), and completed in a few minutes.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Chiaki Toyama and Yuki Ohmuro-Matsuyama for their experimental help. We also thank the Biomaterial Analysis Center, Technical Department, Tokyo Institute of Technology for the nucleic acid sequence analysis.

Funding

The authors are partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI (Grant Nos. JP15H04191, JP18H03851 and JP26420793) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; by a Special Developing Research Grant from the Nakatani Foundation, Japan; and by Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (Grant Number: ZR2017MB037) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number: 21775064).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Chemistry and Life Science, Institute of Innovative Research, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259-R1-18, Nagatsuta-cho, Midori-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 226-8503, Japan

    Shitao Zhao, Jinhua Dong, Hee-Jin Jeong & Hiroshi Ueda

  2. Key Laboratory of Biological Medicine in Universities of Shandong Province, School of Bioscience and Technology, Weifang Medical University, Weifang, 261053, Shandong, China

    Jinhua Dong

  3. Electrical & Electronic Information Eng, Toyohashi University of Technology, Hibarigaoka 1-1, Tempaku-cho, Toyohashi, Aichi, 441-8580, Japan

    Koichi Okumura

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  1. Shitao Zhao
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  2. Jinhua Dong
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  3. Hee-Jin Jeong
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  4. Koichi Okumura
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  5. Hiroshi Ueda
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Correspondence to Jinhua Dong or Hiroshi Ueda.

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Zhao, S., Dong, J., Jeong, HJ. et al. Rapid detection of the neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid using a quenchbody assay. Anal Bioanal Chem 410, 4219–4226 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-018-1074-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-018-1074-y

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