Development of a novel homogeneous immunoassay using the engineered luminescent enzyme NanoLuc for the quantification of the mycotoxin fumonisin B1

Abstract

Mycotoxins exist ubiquitously through natural occurrence in foods such as crops and dairy products. Mycotoxins are small toxic molecules produced by certain fungi species and pose a threat to public health. Fumonisins, an important class of mycotoxins produced by the Fusarium species, cause significant world agriculture concerns. Because of fumonisin's toxicity, it has attracted considerable concern from public health officials and food safety authorities worldwide. Thus, fumonisins contaminated foods must be continuously monitored to ensure their legal compliance and implementing an easy and fast system facilitates the monitoring process from beginning to end. In this research, we employed NanoBiT technology to develop a new system named FNanoBiT to quantify fumonisin B1 in foods. FNanoBiT system's application required no washing steps and revealed high specificity toward fumonisin B1 with high sensitivity. Further, the FNanoBiT successfully detected fumonisin B1 in contaminated food, with acceptable precision and fast procedure. This study responds to fill the gap of developing fast and easy technology for fumonisin B1 detection in foods. Therefore, implementing the NanoBiT technology could help food inspectors rapidly identify any potential issues and concerns over food products' safety and quality.