Integrated immunochromatographic assay for qualitative and quantitative detection of clenbuterol

Abstract

In this study, colloidal gold (CG) and time-resolved fluorescent nanobead (TRFN) probes were used to establish an integrated immunochromatographic assay (ICA) to qualitatively and quantitatively detect clenbuterol (CLE). The best experimental conditions for the two probes in separate ICAs were obtained by optimizing the antibody labeling concentration, the amount of antigen, and the concentration of probe. When the CG and TRFN probes co-existed in the ICA, the latter had no effect on the sensitivity of qualitative detection of the CG probe-based ICA. However, the CG probe optimized the linear range of quantitative detection in the TRFN probe-based ICA. The integrated test strip can be used for qualitative and quantitative detection of CLE in one step. When the amount of antigen reached 0.4 mg/mL, the CG probe concentration reached 1.2 μg/mL, and the TRFN probe concentration reached 0.68 μg/mL. The qualitative sensitivity of the integrated ICA was 0.5 ng/mL and its quantitative limit of detection was 0.04 ng/mL with a detection range of 0.1–2.7 ng/mL. This developed method is of great significance for large-scale samples screening and positive monitoring in the field of food safety testing.