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Detection of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene in environmental samples using a homogeneous fluoroimmunoassay
Ellen R Goldman1, Tiffany J Cohill, Charles H Patterson
1Center for Bio/Molecular Science and Engineering, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375, USA. erg@cbmse.nrl.navy.mil
Abstract:
We have tested both soil and water environmental samples for 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) using a simple homogeneous assay. This assay is based on changes in fluorescence emission intensity when a fluorescently labeled TNT analogue, bound to an anti-TNT antibody, is competitively displaced by TNT. Fluoroimmunoassay results for TNT concentrations in diluted acetone extracts prepared from archived soils were in good agreement with the results from high-performance liquid chromatography analysis of the same sample extracts. In addition, assays of TNT-spiked environmental well water gave results essentially identical with assays conducted in a TNT-spiked laboratory buffer. The homogeneous fluoroimmunoassay, which is rapid, simple, sensitive, and amenable to high throughput screening, shows promise for near real-time evaluation of TNT contamination in environmental samples.
