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A gold nanoparticle-based lateral flow immunoassay for atrazine point-of-care detection using a handhold scanning device as reader

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Abstract

A method is described to achieve accurate quantitative detection of atrazine (ATZ) in maize by using lateral flow strips based on gold nanoparticles (GNPs) and a handheld scanning reader. GNPs of 15 nm in diameter were applied as label, and a lateral flow immune assay strip was prepared. The linear range was 5.01–95.86 ng mL−1 with a detection limit of 4.92 ng mL−1 in phosphate buffer, 4 times better than the readout by the naked eye. ATZ-spiked corn samples were also analysed. The accuracy of results of spiked samples was confirmed by ELISA and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC), which proved the reliability of the proposed method. A handhold device with an optical scanning system was designed for on-site quantitative detection. Combined with the pretreatment, the assay could be completed in less than 20 min.

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Acknowledgements

We sincerely thank all the colleagues for making great efforts to this manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by the Major Research Plan of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 2018YFC1602904, Grant No. 2018YFC1602903) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21976210).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tianjin Key Laboratory of Risk Assessment and Control Technology for Environment & Food Safety, Tianjin Institute of Environmental and Operational Medicine, Tianjin, 300050, China

    Tieqiang Sun, Zehua Xu, Shuai Yuan, Xiao Liu, Zongfen Chen, Longxing Fan, Han Yang & Baoan Ning

  2. School of Public Health, Inner Mongolia Medical University, Hohhot, 010000, China

    Zhenyu Han & Wentao Liu

  3. 96601 Army Hospital of PLA, Beijing, 110035, China

    Zhiwei Qie

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  1. Tieqiang Sun
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  2. Zehua Xu
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  3. Shuai Yuan
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  4. Xiao Liu
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  5. Zongfen Chen
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  9. Han Yang
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Contributions

Zhiwei Qie and Baoan Ning were in charge of performing all the laboratory work and the preparation of the manuscript. Tieqiang Sun, Zehua Xu, Xiao Liu, and Shuai Yuan provide great help in performing the laboratory work. Zongfen Chen, Zhenyu Han, Wentao Liu, Longxing Fan, and Han Yang supervised the entire work.

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Correspondence to Zhiwei Qie or Baoan Ning.

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Tieqiang Sun and Zehua Xu are joint first authors.

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Sun, T., Xu, Z., Yuan, S. et al. A gold nanoparticle-based lateral flow immunoassay for atrazine point-of-care detection using a handhold scanning device as reader. Microchim Acta 189, 153 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-021-05146-9

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