Development of a recombinant Fab-fragment based electrochemical immunosensor for deoxynivalenol detection in food samples

A reliable and cost-effective electrochemical method for the detection of deoxynivalenol (DON) in cereals and cereal-based food samples based on the use of a novel anti-DON Fab fragment is presented. The analytical system employed, Enzyme-Linked-Immunomagnetic-Electrochemical (ELIME) assay, is based on the use of immunomagnetic beads (IMBs) coupled with eight magnetized screen-printed electrodes (8-mScPEs) as electrochemical transducers.Using standard solutions of DON, a working range between 100 and 4500 ng/ml was obtained with an EC50 of 380 ng/ml. The ELIME assay was employed to evaluate the cross-reactivity of the Fab fragment towards different trichothecenes revealing a good selectivity towards DON over other trichothecenes with the exception of 3-Ac-DON. The sensor was then applied to cereals and cereal-based food samples (wheat, breakfast cereal and baby-food) and a wide range of sample treatment procedures was tested. Within-laboratory precision (9–24% repeatability for breakfast cereals and 10–33% for baby-food) and recovery data (82–110% for breakfast cereals and 97–108% for baby-food) were calculated by analyzing blank breakfast cereals and baby-foods fortified with DON, demonstrating that the proposed method has the capability for use as a screening assay for DON in such products.