Electrofusion preparation of anti-triazophos monoclonal antibodies for development of an indirect competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay

Immunoassays have been widely used to detect small molecular contaminants due to the advantages of simplicity, high throughout and low-cost. Antibodies are essential reagents of immunoassays, their quality directly determines the characteristics of immunoassays. In this study, the monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) of triazophos were prepared by electrofusion, and used to develop an indirect competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ic-ELISA). Under the optimal electrofusion conditions (cells treatment with pronase, the alternating electric field strength of 45 V cm−1, the direct current voltage of 3 kV), the fusion efficiency was 1.104 ± 0.063‱, which was improved more than 4-fold compared with the chemical fusion method (0.255 ± 0.089‱). Three hybrid cell lines that can stably secrete the anti-triazophos mAbs were obtained. The cell line 4G6F10 showed the highest sensitivity, which was used to generate mAb and develop an ic-ELISA. After optimization, the 50% inhibition concentration (IC50), limit of detection (LOD) and linear range (IC10–IC90) of the ic-ELISA were 0.32 ng mL−1, 0.08 ng mL−1 and 0.08–2.17 ng mL−1, respectively. There was no significant cross-reactivity with the analogues of triazophos. The average recoveries of triazophos in spiked samples were 77.5%–89.3% with the relative standard deviations of 0.1%–9.2%. In addition, the ic-ELISA showed good repeatability, reproducibility and accuracy for the analysis of apple samples spiked with triazophos. •Electrofusion parameters are optimizied to increase cell fusion efficiency.•An anti-triazophos monoclonal antibody with high sensitivity is prepared.•An ic-ELISA is developed for the detection of triazophos.•The ic-ELISA performs excellent specificity and accuracy.