A novel idiotypic-based noncompetitive immunoassay based on the dissociation of immunocomplex for detection atrazine in vegetables

Atrazine is a selective systemic herbicide of the chlorotriazine class that is commonly used for controlling annual broadleaf and grassy weeds. However, its residue can harm the environment and human health. We have therefore developed a novel idiotypic-based noncompetitive immunoassay for the detection of atrazine by exploiting the distinctive recognition properties of anti-idiotypic antibodies. This method utilizes atrazine as a “key” to specifically dissociation the “lock” of an anti-idiotypic antibody and detection antibody immunocomplex, thereby enabling both qualitative and quantitative analysis of atrazine. Following all necessary optimizations, this method was capable exhibiting a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.52 ng/mL with R 2  = 0.990, and a linear range of 1.76 to 2604.61 ng/mL. This immunoassay offered its potential towards detection of atrazine in water and 10 kinds of vegetable samples with a recovery ranging from 70.76 to 119.28 %. The idiotypic-based noncompetitive immunoassay provides a well suitable method for low-molecular-weight contaminants immunoassay.