Rigidifying aggregation-induced emission luminogens by metal-organic framework formation for sensitive lateral flow...

T-2 toxin, the strongest toxic of type A trichothecenes, widely exists in barley, wheat, corn, oats, and even human food, which is urgent to establish a rapid and sensitive detection method for T-2 toxin. Herein, we developed a fluorescent lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) for sensitive detection of T-2 toxin. Specially, the monoclonal antibody (mAb) was prepared by immunizing mice and cell fusion, and exhibited a low half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀) of 0.482 ng mL^-1. In addition, an aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-based metal-organic framework (HfMOFs) with excellent fluorescence performance (QY: 72.5 %) was developed as reporter. Benefiting from these advantages, the limit of detection (LoD) of HfMOFs-LFIA was 0.0487 ng mL^-1, which was 7.7-fold lower than traditional nanoparticles-based LFIA (0.375 ng mL^-1). In addition, HfMOFs-LFIA was used for the detection of T-2 toxin in actual samples and showed satisfactory recoveries (71.3 %-123.7 %) with coefficient of variation (2.96 %-14.07 %). Overall, the dual-improvement in mAb and label might power the development in LFIA, achieving innovative prospects for LFIA in food safety fields.