Abstract
Mycotoxins represent a major concern for human and animal health because of their harmful effects and high occurrence in food and feed. Rapid immunoanalytical methods greatly contribute to strengthening the safety of our food supply by efficiently monitoring chemical contaminants, so high-affinity and specific antibodies have been generated for almost all internationally regulated mycotoxins. The only exception is patulin, a mycotoxin mainly produced by Penicillium expansum for which such a target has not yet been achieved. Accordingly, no point-of-need tests commonly used in food immunodiagnostics are commercially available for patulin. In the present study, three functionalized derivatives conforming to generally accepted rules in hapten design were firstly tested to generate suitable antibodies for the sensitive immunodetection of patulin. However, these conventional bioconjugates were unable to elicit the desired immune response, so an alternative strategy that takes advantage of the high electrophilic reactivity of patulin was explored. Patulin was reacted with 4-bromothiophenol, and the obtained adduct was used to produce antibodies with nanomolar affinity values. These results demonstrated for the first time that targeting the adduct resulting from the reaction of patulin with a thiol-containing compound is a promising approach for developing user-friendly immunoanalytical techniques for this elusive mycotoxin.
Highlights
Immunodiagnostic companies are commercializing rapid tests for the control and detection of regulated mycotoxins, with the remarkable exception of patulin
It remains controversial whether the approaches described to date for the generation of anti-patulin antibodies may result in specific, high-affinity binders suitable for the development of rapid test formats commonly used in food immunodiagnostics, like ELISA and immunochromatographic strips
Patulin monitoring by antibody-based rapid methods is a long-standing goal in food immunodiagnostics, but the small size of the molecule together with its high electrophilic reactivity makes the aim of obtaining suitable antibodies certainly a challenge
Summary
Immunodiagnostic companies are commercializing rapid tests for the control and detection of regulated mycotoxins, with the remarkable exception of patulin. That strategy consisted of introducing a carboxyl linker at the C-4 position of the molecule by reacting patulin with succinic anhydride; low antibody titres were obtained and poor recognition of free patulin was observed This approach was further followed by other authors, with similar disappointing r esults[16,17,18]. In 2007, de Champdoré et al reported a different strategy consisting of attaching the spacer arm at the C-7 atom of the patulin framework[19], but the ability of the so-obtained antibodies to recognize free patulin in solution by standard competitive ELISA was not demonstrated It remains controversial whether the approaches described to date for the generation of anti-patulin antibodies may result in specific, high-affinity binders suitable for the development of rapid test formats commonly used in food immunodiagnostics, like ELISA and immunochromatographic strips. A disruptive novel strategy harnessing the high electrophilic reactivity of patulin was explored in order to trigger the immune response to this elusive mycotoxin
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