A competitive immunoassay for sensitive detection of small molecules chloramphenicol based on luminol functionalized silver nanoprobe

• Novel silver nanoparticles functionalized by luminol are used for the labeling.
• The labeling procedure is simple, convenient and fast.
• A competitive CL immunoassay has been developed for the detection of CHL.
• The immunoassay is simple, fast, sensitive and selective.
• It is of application potential for the determination of CHL in foodstuffs.

Chloramphenicol (CHL) as a broad-spectrum antibiotic has a broad action spectrum against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, as well as anaerobes. The use of CHL is strictly restricted in poultry because of its toxic effect. However, CHL is still illegally used in animal farming because of its accessibility and low cost. Therefore, sensitive methods are highly desired for the determination of CHL in foodstuffs. The immunoassays based on labeling as an important tool have been reported for the detection of CHL residues in food-producing animals. However, most of the labeling procedures require multi-step reactions and purifications and thus they are complicated and time-consuming. Recently, in our previous work, luminol functionalized silver nanoparticles have been successfully synthesized, which exhibits higher CL efficiency than luminol functionalized gold nanoparticles. In this work, the new luminol functionalized silver nanoparticles have been used for the labeling of small molecules CHL for the first time and a competitive chemiluminescent immunoassay has been developed for the detection of CHL. Owing to the amplification of silver nanoparticles, high sensitivity for CHL could be achieved with a low detection limit of 7.6 × 10−9 g mL−1 and a wide linear dynamic range of 1.0 × 10−8–1.0 × 10−6 g mL−1. This method has also been successfully applied to determine CHL in milk and honey samples with a good recoveries (92% and 102%, 99% and 107% respectively), indicating that the method is feasible for the determination of CHL in real milk and honey samples. The labeling procedure is simple, convenient and fast, superior to previously reported labeling procedures. The immunoassay is also simple, fast, sensitive and selective. It is of application potential for the determination of CHL in foodstuffs.

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