Deoxynivalenol-mimic nanobody isolated from a naïve phage display nanobody library and its application in immunoassay

• Nanobodies that bind to anti-DON antibody were isolated from a naïve library.
• The nanobody-based ELISA was 18-fold more sensitive than conventional ELISA.
• The selected nanobody was thermal stable and can be produced in large scale.
• The molecular mechanism of DON antigen mimicry by nanobody was described.

In this study, using mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON) as a model hapten, we developed a nanobody-based environmental friendly immunoassay for sensitive detection of DON. Two nanobodies (N-28 and N-31) which bind to anti-DON monoclonal antibody (MAb) were isolated from a naive phage display library. These nanobodies are clonable, thermally stable and mycotoxin-free products and can be served as coating antigen mimetics in heterologous immunoassay. The half inhibition concentration (IC50) of the immunoassay developed with N-28 and N-31 was 8.77 ± 0.41 ng mL−1 and 19.97 ± 0.84 ng mL−1, respectively, which were 18- and 8-fold more sensitive than the conventional coating antigen (DON-BSA) based immunoassay. In order to better understand the molecular mechanism of antigen mimicry by nanobody, the 3D structure of “nanobody (N-28) - anti-DON MAb” complex was presented and verified by molecular modeling and alanine-scanning mutagenesis. The results showed that hydrogen bond and hydrophobic interaction formed between Thr 102 – Ser 106 of N-28 and CDR H3 residues of anti-DON antibody may contribute to their binding. This novel concept of enhancing sensitivity of immunoassay for DON based on nanobody may provide potential applications in a general method for immunoassay of various food chemical contaminants.

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