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ARS Home » Plains Area » Fargo, North Dakota » Edward T. Schafer Agricultural Research Center » Animal Metabolism-Agricultural Chemicals Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #193684
Title: DEVELOPMENT OF A MAGNETIC PARTICLE IMMUNOASSAY FOR POLYBROMINATED DIPHENYL ETHERS AND APPLICATION TO ENVIRONMENTAL AND FOOD MATRICES.

Author
item Shelver, Weilin
item PARROTTA, CARMEN - ABRAXIS LLC
item SLAWECKI, RICHARD - ABRAXIS LLC
item LI, QING - UNIV OF HAWAII
item BARCELO, DARMIA - IIQAB-CSIC
item LARCORTE, SILVIA - IIQAB-CSIC
item RUBIO, FERNANDO - ABRAXIS LLC

Submitted to: Chemosphere
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/30/2007
Publication Date: 1/8/2008
Citation: Shelver, W.L., Parrotta, C.D., Slawecki, R., Li, Q.X., Barcelo, D., Larcorte, S., Rubio, F.M. 2008. Development of a magnetic particle immunoassay for polybrominated diphenyl ethers and application to environmental and food matrices. Chemosphere 73:S18-S23.

Interpretive Summary: Polybrominated flame retardants are environmental contaminants and can accumulate through the food chain. These compounds were used in electronic equipment, plastics and textiles to prevent fires. Current analytical methods for these compounds require extensive cleanup procedures, are time consuming, and need expensive instrumentation. In this report we generate a sensitive method to measure polybrominated flame retardants in different water sources (municipal, reservoir, lake, pond, creek, and influent and effluent of waste water treatment plants, soils, fish, and milk) that is easy to operate, rapid, and cost effective.

Technical Abstract: A sensitive magnetic particle enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA) was developed to analyze polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in water, milk, fish, and soil samples. The assay was rapid and can be used to analyze fifty samples in about one hour after sample cleanup. The assay has a limit of detection (LOD) below 0.1 ppb towards the following brominated diphenyl ether (BDE) congeners: BDE-47, BDE-99, BDE-28, BDE-100, and BDE-153 and the sensitivities are proportional to the similarities between the hapten structure to the BDE congener structure. Some oxygenated congeners showed significant cross-reactivities. Very little cross-reactivity was observed for other BDEs or chlorinated environmental contaminants. The assay gave good recoveries of PBDEs from spiked water samples and a very small within and between day variance. Comparison with GC-NCI-MS demonstrated the ELISA method showed equivalent precision with better recovery. In addition, for those congeners recognized by the antibody the two methods demonstrated equivalent sensitivity. The cleanup methods prior to ELISA were matrix dependent, no pretreatment was needed for environmental water samples, while fish, milk, and soil samples required various degrees of cleanup. The relation between the results varied greatly between the different types of samples. Analysis of this wide variety of environmental samples by both ELISA and GC-NCI-MS demonstrated ELISA provides a timely and cost effective method to analyze PBDE.