A Chemiluminescent Antibody Array System for Detection of Foodborne Pathogens in Milk

Abstract

A foodborne antibody array (FAbA) was developed as a rapid, inexpensive, and accurate detection to simultaneously detect Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella spp. using a custom-made chemiluminescent detector. We have optimized fabrication processes, selected the antibody concentrations, calibrated the signals to the pathogen amount, and minimized assay time. In comparison with ∼4 hours for ELISA, FAbA takes only 75 minutes to achieve relatively the same sensitivities (8 × 10⁴ and 5 × 10⁷ CFU/ml for E. coli and Salmonella, respectively). The FAbA was able to detect the pathogens in milk at the same detection limits as in the buffer.

Keywords:

• Antibody array
• Chemiluminescence
• E. coli O157:H7
• Immunoassay
• Salmonella spp. milk

Acknowledgments

This project was financially supported by National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (BIOTEC, Thailand) and NanoASIA, LLc. (Thailand). We are grateful to the scientific team at Nanodetection Technology, LLC. (Tennessee, USA), especially Mr. Ashan Perera, for exchanges of technical comments. We are grateful to Prof. Dr. Morakot Tanticharoen for her mentorship.