Fast and Sensitive Determination of the Fungicide Carbendazim in Fruit Juices with an Immunosensor Based on White Light Reflectance Spectroscopy.

Georgios Koukouvinos,Sotirios Kakabakos,Ioannis Raptis,Evangelia Livaniou,Chrysoula-Evangelia Karachaliou,Panagiota Petrou

doi:10.3390/bios11050153

Georgios Koukouvinos, Sotirios Kakabakos + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/bios11050153

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Abstract

Carbendazim is a systemic benzimidazole-type fungicide with broad-spectrum activity against fungi that undermine food products safety and quality. Despite its effectiveness, carbendazim constitutes a major environmental pollutant, being hazardous to both humans and animals. Therefore, fast and reliable determination of carbendazim levels in water, soil, and food samples is of high importance for both food industry and public health. Herein, an optical biosensor based on white light reflectance spectroscopy (WLRS) for fast and sensitive determination of carbendazim in fruit juices is presented. The transducer is a Si/SiO2 chip functionalized with a benzimidazole conjugate, and determination is based on a competitive immunoassay format. Thus, for the assay, a mixture of an in-house developed rabbit polyclonal anti-carbendazim antibody with the standards or samples is pumped over the chip, followed by biotinylated secondary antibody and streptavidin. The WLRS platform allows for real-time monitoring of biomolecular interactions carried out onto the Si/SiO2 chip by transforming the shift in the reflected interference spectrum caused by the immunoreaction to effective biomolecular adlayer thickness. The sensor is able to detect 20 ng/mL of carbendazim in fruit juices with high accuracy and precision (intra- and inter-assay CVs ≤ 6.9% and ≤9.4%, respectively) in less than 30 min, applying a simple sample treatment that alleviates any “matrix-effect” on the assay results and a 60 min preincubation step for improving assay sensitivity. Excellent analytical characteristics and short analysis time along with its small size render the proposed WLRS immunosensor ideal for future on-the-spot determination of carbendazim in food and environmental samples.

Highlights

Fungal contamination causes significant damages to the crops for human consumption every year, resulting in poor yield, deficient food quality, and huge economic loss
Carbendazim is a synthetic, systemic, broadspectrum, benzimidazole-type fungicide used worldwide as pre- and post-harvest treatment to control fungi that compromise the quality of various food commodities such as vegetables, fruits, cereals, and seeds [2,3]
The results obtained from the analysis of fruit juice samples with the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) assay were compared with those of the white light reflectance spectroscopy (WLRS) immunosensor

Summary

Introduction

Fungal contamination causes significant damages to the crops for human consumption every year, resulting in poor yield, deficient food quality, and huge economic loss. To circumvent these problems, the use of fungicides has been intensified over the last decades [1]. Despite the unquestionable benefits regarding crop yield, carbendazim is a major pollutant, which induces acute and chronic effects on humans and livestock. In this context, carbendazim has been documented to induce infertility, embryotoxicity, teratogenicity, hepatocellular dysfunction, endocrine-disrupting effects, disruption of hematological functions, and mutagenicity [2].

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