A novel α-Fe2O3 nanocubes-based multiplex immunochromatographic assay for simultaneous detection of deoxynivalenol and aflatoxin B1 in food samples

Multiple mycotoxins may co-occurred in a single product and cause serious threats to public health. Herein, a multiplex immunochromatographic assay (mICA) was developed based on novel α-Fe2O3 nanocubes (FNCs) as signal tags for the simultaneous detection of deoxynivalenol (DON) and aflatoxins B1 (AFB1). The FNCs with eminent water-dispersibility and stability were synthesized by a one-step hydrothermal process, which can rapidly label monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to form FNCs-mAb probe. Under optimal experimental conditions, the visual limit of detection for DON and AFB1 were 0.18 ng/mL and 0.01 ng/mL, respectively, which were at least 2-fold improvement compared with the traditional gold nanoparticles based mICA. Furthermore, DON and AFB1 residual in mung bean, millet and corn were successfully detected by the proposed biosensor, and the average recovery rates were 93.3%–128.3%. Thus, this work indicated that the developed FNCs-mICA provided a sensitive, rapid and reliable on-site simultaneous detection of multiple mycotoxins.