Anti-idiotypic nanobody: A strategy for development of sensitive and green immunoassay for Fumonisin B₁.

Nanobodies that are small and thermally stable, as well as have high expression level, are leading alternative to produce anti-idiotypic antibodies. These antibodies have the advantage of replacing mycotoxins and their conjugates for immunoassays. In this work, anti-fumonisin B1 (FB1) monoclonal antibody (mAb) was used as the target for biopanning from a naïve alpaca nanobody (Nb) phage display library. After three cycles of panning, one anti-idiotypic nanobody (Ab2β Nb) was isolated and subjected to a Nb-ELISA for the detection of FB1. Surface plasmon resonance was used to analyze the reaction kinetics between the Ab2β Nb and anti-FB1 mAb. The developed assay showed a half inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 0.95±0.12 ng/mL, a limit of detection of 0.15 ng/mL, a linear range of 0.27-5.92 ng/mL, and a low cross-reactivity toward FB2 of 4.93%. The sensitivity was enhanced approximately 20-fold compared with that of the chemosynthetic FB1-BSA conjugates. The equilibrium dissociation constant (KD) measured for Ab2β Nb: anti-FB1 mAb was 164.6 nM. The assay was compared with conventional ELISA (the commercial ELISA kit), and the results indicated the reliability of Ab2β Nb replacing the antigen-carrier protein conjugates. The use of biotechnology in developing the surrogate is an ideal strategy for replacing conventional synthesized antigens.