Mònica Campàs

Biosensors to detect marine toxins: Assessing seafood safety

This article describes the different types of marine toxins and their toxic effects, and reviews the bio/analytical techniques for their detection, putting special emphasis to biosensors. Important health concerns have recently appeared around shellfish (diarrheic, paralytic, amnesic, neurologic and azaspiracid) and fish (ciguatera and puffer) poisonings produced by different types of phycotoxins, making evident the urgent necessity of counting on appropriate detection technologies. With this purpose, several analysis methods (bioassays, chromatographic techniques, immunoassays and enzyme inhibition-based assays) have been developed. However, easy-to-use, fast and low-cost devices, able to deal with complicated matrices, are still required. Biosensors offer themselves as promising biotools, alternative and/or complementary to conventional analysis techniques, for fast, simple, cheap and reliable toxicity screening. Nevertheless, despite the wide range of seafood toxins and the already rooted biosensing systems, the literature on biosensors for phycotoxins is scarce. This article discusses the existing biosensor-based strategies and their advantages and limitations. Finally, the article gives a general overlook about the regulation toxin levels and monitoring programmes currently established around the world concerning seafood safety.

A review of the use of genetically engineered enzymes in electrochemical biosensors.

This article gives an overview of the electrochemical biosensors that incorporate genetically modified enzymes. Firstly, the improvements on the sensitivity and selectivity of biosensors that integrate mutated enzymes are summarised. Next, new trends focused on the oriented immobilisation of mutated enzymes through specific functional groups located at their surface are reviewed. Finally, the effect of enzyme mutations on the electron transfer distance and kinetics of electrochemical biosensors is described.

Enzymatic recycling-based amperometric immunosensor for the ultrasensitive detection of okadaic acid in shellfish.

Electrochemical immunosensors based on a competitive indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ciELISA) and an enzymatic recycling system were developed for the detection of okadaic acid (OA). OA-ovalbumin (OA-OVA) conjugate was immobilised on screen-printed electrodes (SPEs) and competition of a newly generated monoclonal antibody (MAb) for free and immobilised OA was subsequently performed. Secondary antibodies labelled with alkaline phosphatase (ALP) or horseradish peroxidase (HRP) were used for signal generation. Experimental parameters were firstly optimised by colorimetric ELISA on microtiter wells and on SPEs. The ELISA system was then tested by amperometry at +300 mV vs. Ag/AgCl (detection of p-aminophenol produced by the reaction of p-aminophenyl phosphate with ALP) or -200 mV vs. Ag/AgCl (detection of 5-methyl-phenazinium methyl sulfate, redox mediator in the HRP bioelectrocatalysis). The limits of detection (LODs) with standard solutions were 1.07 and 1.98 microgL(-1) when using ALP and HRP labels, respectively. An electrochemical signal amplification system based on diaphorase (DI) recycling was integrated into the ALP-based immunosensor, decreasing the LOD to 0.03 microgL(-1) and enlarging the working range by two orders of magnitude. Preliminary results with mussel and oyster extracts were obtained and compared with the colorimetric immunoassay, the colorimetric protein phosphatase inhibition assay (PPIA) and LC-MS/MS.

New advances in electrochemical biosensors for the detection of toxins: Nanomaterials, magnetic beads and microfluidics systems. A review

The use of nanotechnology in bioanalytical devices has special advantages in the detection of toxins of interest in food safety and environmental applications. The low levels to be detected and the small size of toxins justify the increasing number of publications dealing with electrochemical biosensors, due to their high sensitivity and design versatility. The incorporation of nanomaterials in their development has been exploited to further increase their sensitivity, providing simple and fast devices, with multiplexed capabilities. This paper gives an overview of the electrochemical biosensors that have incorporated carbon and metal nanomaterials in their configurations for the detection of toxins. Biosensing systems based on magnetic beads or integrated into microfluidics systems have also been considered because of their contribution to the development of compact analytical devices. The roles of these materials, the methods used for their incorporation in the biosensor configurations as well as the advantages they provide to the analyses are summarised.

Layer-by-Layer Biomolecular Assemblies for Enzyme Sensors, Immunosensing, and Nanoarchitectures

Abstract Layer-by-Layer (LbL) assemblies are multi-modular constructions created on solid substrate mainly via electrostatic interactions between polyanions and polycations. The LbL approach can be used for the inter-layer immobilization of biomolecules with enhanced properties for biocatalytic and immunosensing applications, and to create nanoarchitectures for drug encapsulation and release systems. This LbL approach is generic and provides a strategy to rationally design the properties of immobilized films. The following review reports on the LbL state-of-the-art, characterization techniques, applications in biosensing, and nanoarchitectures.

Enzyme inhibition-based biosensor for the electrochemical detection of microcystins in natural blooms of cyanobacteria.

An electrochemical biosensor for the detection of microcystin has been developed based on the inhibition of the protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) by this cyanobacterial toxin. The enzyme has been immobilised by entrapment using a poly(vinyl alcohol) azide-unit pendant water-soluble photopolymer (PVA-AWP). Electrode supports and immobilisation conditions have been optimised by colorimetric assays, the highest immobilisation yields being obtained with screen-printed graphite electrodes and the 1:2 PP2A:PVA ratio. Catechyl monophosphate (CMP), alpha-naphthyl phosphate (alpha-NP) and 4-methylumbelliferyl phosphate (4-MUP) have been used as phosphorylated substrates to monitor the protein phosphatase activity by electrochemical methods, the former providing the highest chronoamperometric currents at appropriate working potentials (+450mV versus Ag/AgCl). Incubation with standard microcystin solutions has demonstrated the inhibition of the immobilised enzyme, proportional to the toxin concentration. The standard inhibition curve has provided a 50% inhibition coefficient (IC(50)) of 83mugL(-1), a limit of detection (LOD; 35% inhibition) of 37mugL(-1), and 100% inhibition at about 1000mugL(-1). Real samples of cyanobacterial blooms from the Tarn River (Midi-Pyrénées, France) have been analysed using the developed amperometric biosensor and the toxin contents have been compared to those obtained by a conventional colorimetric protein phosphatase inhibition (PPI) assay and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results clearly justify the use of the developed amperometric biosensor as screening method for microcystin detection.

Biomolecule Immobilization in Biosensor Development: Tailored Strategies Based on Affinity Interactions

The exponential development of biosensors as powerful analytical tools in the last four decades mainly relies on the high sensitivity and selectivity offered when detecting the target analyte. The transducer and the biological receptor are the bases of the biosensor development. Nevertheless, the bioreceptor immobilisation is also important, playing a key role in the retention of the biological activity, and thus affecting the sensitivity. Parameters such as shelf-life and surface regeneration also depend on the biomolecule immobilisation. Researchers are focusing their efforts towards random and oriented immobilisation procedures. Adsorption, entrapment, cross-linking and electrostatic interactions provide randomly immobilised biomolecules, sometimes partially hindering their biological activity. Covalent binding and affinity interactions may enable oriented biomolecule immobilisations, providing controlled, reproducible and highly active modified surfaces. This paper reviews the main immobilisation strategies used in the biosensors development, putting special emphasis on our contribution to mild and oriented immobilisation techniques.

Alternative methods for the detection of emerging marine toxins: biosensors, biochemical assays and cell-based assays.

The emergence of marine toxins in water and seafood may have a considerable impact on public health. Although the tendency in Europe is to consolidate, when possible, official reference methods based on instrumental analysis, the development of alternative or complementary methods providing functional or toxicological information may provide advantages in terms of risk identification, but also low cost, simplicity, ease of use and high-throughput analysis. This article gives an overview of the immunoassays, cell-based assays, receptor-binding assays and biosensors that have been developed for the screening and quantification of emerging marine toxins: palytoxins, ciguatoxins, cyclic imines and tetrodotoxins. Their advantages and limitations are discussed, as well as their possible integration in research and monitoring programs.

Evidence of okadaic acid production in a cultured strain of the marine dinoflagellate Prorocentrum rhathymum from Malaysia

Protein phosphatase inhibition assay (PPIA), Neuroblastoma cell-based assay (Neuro-2a CBA) and LC-MS/MS analysis revealed for the first time the production of okadaic acid (OA) by a Prorocentrum rhathymum strain. Low amounts of OA were detected by LC-MS/MS analysis. Inhibition of PP2A activity and a weak toxicity to the Neuro-2a CBA were also observed.

Detection of Tetrodotoxins in Puffer Fish by a Self-Assembled Monolayer-Based Immunoassay and Comparison with Surface Plasmon Resonance, LC-MS/MS, and Mouse Bioassay.

The increasing occurrence of puffer fish containing tetrodotoxin (TTX) in the Mediterranean could represent a major food safety risk for European consumers and threaten the fishing industry. The work presented herein describes the development of a new enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (mELISA) based on the immobilization of TTX through dithiol monolayers self-assembled on maleimide plates, which provides an ordered and oriented antigen immobilization and favors the antigen-antibody affinity interaction. The mELISA was found to have a limit of detection (LOD) of TTX of 0.23 mg/kg of puffer fish matrix. The mELISA and a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) immunosensor previously developed were employed to establish the cross-reactivity factors (CRFs) of 5,6,11-trideoxy-TTX, 5,11-deoxy-TTX, 11-nor-TTX-6-ol, and 5,6,11-trideoxy-4-anhydro-TTX, as well as to determine TTX equivalent contents in puffer fish samples. Results obtained by both immunochemical tools were correlated (R(2) = 0.977). The puffer fish samples were also analyzed using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), and the corresponding CRFs were applied to the individual TTX contents. Results provided by the immunochemical tools, when compared with those obtained by LC-MS/MS, showed a good degree of correlation (R(2) = 0.991 and 0.979 for mELISA and SPR, respectively). The mouse bioassay (MBA) slightly overestimated the CRF adjusted TTX content of samples when compared with the data obtained from the other techniques. The mELISA has been demonstrated to be fit for the purpose for screening samples in monitoring programs and in research activities.