From Smartphone Lateral Flow Immunoassay Screening to Direct MS Analysis: Development and Validation of a Semi-Quantitative Direct Analysis in Real-Time Mass Spectrometric (DART-MS) Approach to the Analysis of Deoxynivalenol.

Ariadni Geballa-Koukoula,Michel W F Nielen,Arjen Gerssen

doi:10.3390/s21051861

Ariadni Geballa-Koukoula, Michel W F Nielen + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/s21051861

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Abstract

In current food safety monitoring, lateral flow immunoassays (LFIAs) are widely used for rapid food contaminant screening. Recent advances include smartphone readouts, offering semi-quantitative analysis of LFIAs with time, location, and data transfer in case of on-site testing. Following the screening, the next step in the EU regulations is confirmation by, e.g., liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). In this work, using direct analysis in real time ambient ionization and triple quadrupole MS/MS (DART-QqQ-MS/MS), we achieved rapid confirmation of the identity of the substance(s) causing the LFIA result. In the workflow proposed, an individual performs the (on-site) smartphone LFIA screening, and when the result is suspect, an identification LFIA (ID-LFIA) strip is developed with the same sample extract. The ID-LFIA can be dissociated and rapidly analyzed in a control laboratory with DART-QqQ-MS/MS. The ID-LFIA consists of multiple lines of monoclonal antibodies against the mycotoxin deoxynivalenol, acting as a bioaffinity trap. The ID-LFIA/DART-QqQ-MS/MS approach has been developed and validated, along with the screening smartphone LFIA, and has demonstrated its applicability by analyzing incurred and spiked samples. The developed approach has been critically compared with our previous direct electrospray ionization MS method and was found to provide highly complementary information on the total deoxynivalenol contamination in the sample.

Highlights

According to the European Union (EU) regulation, food needs to be monitored and tested to reassure the absence of contaminants [1]
We developed a direct analysis in real time (DART) alternative to ionize the retrieved mycotoxins from the ID-lateral flow immunoassays (LFIAs)
We showed that the identification LFIA (ID-LFIA)/DART-MS/MS method could discriminate unequivocally between the analyte and other components that can be present in real samples

Summary

Introduction

According to the European Union (EU) regulation, food needs to be monitored and tested to reassure the absence of contaminants [1]. The first step involves rapid screening assays using, for example, lateral flow immunoassays (LFIAs) These provide a positive or negative result regarding a specific contaminant’s presence or absence at a validated target level. If the screening result is positive, confirmatory analysis should be performed with liquid or gas chromatography and (tandem) mass spectrometric detection (LC- or GC-MS or -MS/MS) [5]. In this scheme, screening and confirmation act complimentarily; screening is fast and performed, but it does not give any structural information on the contaminant. Confirmation involves time-consuming chromatographic separation and elaborate sample preparation, which could be considered a disadvantage for routine analysis laboratories when many samples have to be analyzed

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