Colorimetric and chemiluminescent enzyme immunoassays based on the alkaline phosphatase-tagged single-chain variable fragment fusion tracer for detecting zearalenone in agro-products.

Zearalenone (ZEN) is a non-steroidal estrogenic mycotoxin and seriously threatens food safety, which requires rapid and sensitive detection methods for monitoring ZEN in agro-products. Herein, an alkaline phosphatase-tagged single-chain variable fragment fusion protein (ALP-scFv) was used as a bifunctional tracer to develop a colorimetric enzyme immunoassay (CEIA) and a chemiluminescent enzyme immunoassay (CLEIA) for ZEN. In addition, the interactions between scFv and ZEN were exploited by computer-assisted simulation, and four key amino acid sites were preliminarily identified. After optimization, the CEIA and CLEIA exhibited a limit of detection of 0.02 and 0.006 ng/mL, respectively. Furthermore, both methods showed favorable accuracy in recovery experiments and good selectivity in cross reactions. Moreover, the detection results of the actual samples from both methods correlated well with those from high-performance liquid chromatography. Overall, the ALP-scFv fusion tracer-based CEIA and CLEIA are demonstrated as reliable tools for ZEN detection in food.