A new magnetic electrochemical immunoassay has been developed as a tool for biomonitoring exposures to organophosphate (OP) compounds, e.g., insecticides and chemical nerve agents, by directly detecting organophosphorylated acetylcholinesterase (OP-AChE). This immunoassay uniquely incorporates highly efficient magnetic separation with ultrasensitive square wave voltammetry (SWV) analysis with quantum dots (QDs) as labels. A pair of antibodies was used to achieve the specific recognition of OP-AChE that was prepared with paraoxon as an OP model agent. Antiphosphoserine polyclonal antibodies were anchored on amorphous magnetic particles preferably chosen to capture OP-AChE from the sample matrixes by binding their phosphoserine moieties that were exposed through unfolding the protein adducts. This was validated by electrochemical examinations and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Furthermore, antihuman AChE monoclonal antibodies were labeled with cadmium-source QDs to selectively recognize the captured OP-AChE, as characterized by transmission electron microscopy. The subsequent electrochemical SWV analysis of the cadmium component released by acid from the coupled QDs was conducted on disposable screen-printed electrodes. Experimental results indicated that the SWV-based immunoassays could yield a linear response over a broad concentration range of 0.3-300 ng/mL OP-AChE in human plasma with a detection limit of 0.15 ng/mL. Such a novel electrochemical immunoassay holds great promise as a simple, selective, sensitive, and field-deployable tool for the effective biomonitoring and diagnosis of potential exposures to nerve agents and pesticides.
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website.
Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.
You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link.
CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website.
For more information on CDC's web notification policies, see Website Disclaimers.
CDC.gov Privacy Settings
We take your privacy seriously. You can review and change the way we collect information below.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Cookies used to make website functionality more relevant to you. These cookies perform functions like remembering presentation options or choices and, in some cases, delivery of web content that based on self-identified area of interests.
Cookies used to track the effectiveness of CDC public health campaigns through clickthrough data.
Cookies used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on CDC.gov through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes by these third parties.
Thank you for taking the time to confirm your preferences. If you need to go back and make any changes, you can always do so by going to our Privacy Policy page.