MIP loaded porous scaffolds for multi-mycotoxin analysis

Mycotoxins are important and naturally occurring contaminants in food and feed. These secondary metabolites produced by various fungal species are present in very low concentrations (ppb-ppt range). They can cause toxic effects in humans and animals, and the economic consequences of contaminations should not be underestimated. Reducing the mycotoxin contamination risk by frequent monitoring through rapid, sensitive and accurate analysis is highly needed. In the past ten years, interest moved towards a multi-analyte approach because of the reported co-occurrence of different mycotoxins. Therefore, selective recognition elements that bind with different target mycotoxins are required. Antibodies represent the most commonly used recognition elements in mycotoxin analysis, but alternatives such as molecularly imprinted polymers (MIP) are being developed since antibodies suffer from some disadvantages. The aim of this research is to use MIP as alternative recognition elements for multi-mycotoxin analysis. MIP of sub-micrometer sizes ( ̴ 456 nm) against ergot alkaloids were produced by using precipitation polymerization. Batch rebinding experiments by using LC-MS/MS indicated that MIP particles bind higher amounts of template molecules (metergoline) compared to non-imprinted particles. In a next step, MIP particles were immobilized onto poly-e-caprolactone (PCL) structures by means of Pluronic® F127 bismethacrylate (PF127-BMA) hydrogel building blocks. On the one hand, 2D PCL-spincoated glass plates are used to optimize the immobilization protocol and to select the optimal hydrogel concentration. Immobilization experiments and sol-gel tests of different hydrogel concentrations have shown that 7.5, 10 and 20% PF127-BMA resulted in successful immobilization of the particles and a sufficient gel-fraction of the corresponding hydrogel network. On the other hand, the BioplotterTM technology was used to produce 3D PCL scaffolds which are characterized by micrometer sized interconnective pores. The production of these structures and immobilization of MIP onto these scaffolds were successful as shown by SEM analysis. In a next step the MIP binding capacity will be evaluated after immobilization on 3D scaffolds. In this way, MIP for different mycotoxins can be combined to develop multi-mycotoxin screening tests and new sample preparation methods by using solid phase extraction (SPE) columns. Very interestingly, the proposed strategy may result in more efficient multi-mycotoxin analysis.

from #MedicinebyAlexandrosSfakianakis via xlomafota13 on Inoreader http://ift.tt/1SRKjos
via IFTTT