Production and characterization of a biotinylated single-chain variable fragment antibody for detection of parathion-methyl

• A pre-immunized phage display library was constructed against parathion-methyl.
• ScFv antibodies were expressed and selected by an indirect competitive ELISA.
• The selected antibody was expressed in high-level and biotinylated in vitro by BirA.
• The biotinylated antibody was confirmed by SDS-PAGE and western blotting.
• A sensitive and specific IC-ELISA for parathion-methyl was developed.

In this article, we reported the development of a biotinylated single-chain variable fragment (scFv) antibody based indirect competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (IC-ELISA) for parathion-methyl (PM) detection. Firstly, a phage display library was generated using a pre-immunized BALB/C mouse against a specific hapten of PM. After four rounds of panning, the scFv gene fragments were transferred into a secreted expression vector. Then, the scFv antibodies were secreted expressed and screened by IC-ELISA against PM. The selected scFv antibody was fused with a biotin acceptor domain (BAD) and inserted into pET-28a(+) vector for high-level expression in Escherichia coli BL2 (DE3). After optimizing expression conditions, the scFv-BAD antibody was expressed as a soluble protein and biotinylated in vitro by the E. coli biotin ligase (BirA). Subsequently, the biotinylated scFv-BAD antibody was purified with a high yield of 59.2 ± 3.7 mg/L of culture, and was characterized by SDS-PAGE and western blotting. Finally, based on the biotinylated scFv-BAD, a sensitive IC-ELISA for detection of PM was developed, and the 50% inhibition value (IC50) of PM was determined as 14.5 ng/mL, with a limit of detection (LOD, IC10) of 0.9 ng/mL. Cross-reactivity (CR) studies revealed that the scFv antibody showed desirable specificity for PM.