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Triple immunochromatographic test system for detection of priority aquatic toxins in water and fish

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Abstract

Aquatic toxins are a group of toxic compounds produced by several types of freshwater and marine algae and cyanobacteria and transported through the food chains of water bodies. Potential contamination of aquaculture products (raw and processed fish and seafood) with aquatic toxins requires the use of efficient screening methods for their control. In this study, a multiplex immunochromatographic test system for the simultaneous detection of three aquatic toxins—phycotoxins domoic acid (DA) and okadaic acid (OA), and cyanotoxin microcystin-LR (MC-LR)—is for the first time developed. For this, a competitive indirect immunochromatographic analysis (ICA) based on gold-labeled secondary antibodies was carried out. The LODs/cutoffs/working ranges of the ICA were 0.05/0.3/0.07–0.29, 1.3/100/3.2–58.2, and 0.1/2.0/0.2–1.1 ng/mL for MC-LR, DA, and OA, respectively. The assay duration was 18 min. The developed test system was used to analyze water samples from natural sources (salt and fresh water) and fish samples. For sample preparation of water, simple dilution with a buffer was proposed; for fish samples, methanol–water extraction was utilized. It was demonstrated that the triple LFIA specifically detected target aquatic toxins with recoveries of 85.0–121.5%. The developed multiplex LFIA can be considered a promising analytical solution for the rapid, easy, and sensitive control of water and food safety.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to S.M. Pridvorova for TEM studies and D.S. Popravko for the design of Fig. 3.

Funding

This research was funded by the Russian Science Foundation (grant number 20–43-07001; development and validation of the test system) and by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (consideration of registration and processing tools for the tests).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bach Institute of Biochemistry, Research Center of Biotechnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky prospect 33, 119071, Moscow, Russia

    Elena A. Zvereva, Olga D. Hendrickson, Anatoly V. Zherdev & Boris B. Dzantiev

  2. Blokhin National Medical Research Center of Oncology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Kashirskoye shosse 24, 115478, Moscow, Russia

    Olga N. Solopova

  3. Russian Research Center for Molecular Diagnostics and Therapy, Sympheropolsky Blvrd., 8, 117638, Moscow, Russia

    Peter G. Sveshnikov

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  1. Elena A. Zvereva
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  2. Olga D. Hendrickson
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  4. Anatoly V. Zherdev
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  5. Peter G. Sveshnikov
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Contributions

Elena A. Zvereva: Methodology, investigation, formal analysis, writing—original draft. Olga D. Hendrickson: Investigation; data curation; writing, original draft; writing, review and editing. Olga N. Solopova: Investigation, data curation. Anatoly V. Zherdev: Conceptualization, writing—review and editing. Peter G. Sveshnikov: Conceptualization, supervision. Boris B. Dzantiev: Supervision, project administration.

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Correspondence to Boris B. Dzantiev.

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Studies in animals were performed following the EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments and authorized by the Institutional Ethics Committee of the Research Center of Biotechnology (protocol code N22-D February 12, 2020).

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Zvereva, E.A., Hendrickson, O.D., Solopova, O.N. et al. Triple immunochromatographic test system for detection of priority aquatic toxins in water and fish. Anal Bioanal Chem 414, 7553–7563 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-022-04298-8

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