Rapid screening and quantification of multi-class antibiotic pollutants in water using a planar waveguide...

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Analytical Chemistry
• Biotechnology

Background:

• Antibiotics in agriculture and aquaculture pose risks to human health through water contamination.
• Immunosensors offer sensitive, low-cost antibiotic detection but struggle with multi-class analysis and matrix effects.
• Simultaneous detection of diverse antibiotic classes in real water samples remains a significant challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a planar waveguide immunosensor (PWI) for simultaneous multi-class antibiotic detection in real water.
• To address challenges of limited detection sites and matrix effects in current immunosensor technology.
• To enable rapid, cost-effective environmental monitoring of antibiotic pollutants.

Main Methods:

• Integration of screening and quantitative detection sites on a single immunochip.
• Development of a specialized testing buffer to mitigate matrix effects in real water samples.
• Utilizing a planar waveguide immunosensor for detecting 14 different antibiotics, including lincomycin and quinolones.

Main Results:

• The PWI successfully detected 14 different antibiotics in real water samples.
• A detection limit of 0.01 μg L⁻¹ for lincomycin was achieved.
• Thirteen quinolone antibiotics were screened in a single assay, demonstrating broad-spectrum capability.
• The developed testing buffer eliminated the need for complex sample pretreatment.

Conclusions:

• The planar waveguide immunosensor enables simultaneous screening and quantification of multi-class antibiotic pollutants in real water.
• This technology offers a practical solution for environmental monitoring of antibiotic contamination.
• The PWI system demonstrates high sensitivity and overcomes matrix effects, paving the way for wider application.