Analytical performances of validated chemiluminescent enzyme immunoassays to detect N-methylcarbamate pesticides

In the present work, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) with chemiluminescent detection for the determination of carbofuran, carbaryl and methiocarb were developed and the analytical parameters of these assays were compared with those of ELISAs with colorimetric detection. Both were conjugate-coated formats based on identical monoclonal antibodies and homologous protein conjugates. In comparison with colorimetric ELISA, the ability of the chemiluminescent reagents to detect lower concentrations of horseradish peroxidase allowed to decrease the optimal antibody and conjugate concentrations and to reach better analytical parameters. The experimental comparison of the analytical performance of the ELISAs was carried out by analysing extracts of apple-strawberry baby food and simply diluted fruit juices, both spiked at different concentration levels with the above mentioned pesticides. Recovery values for both ELISAs were around 100% and no matrix effects were observed when fruit juices were diluted 1:20 or more. Results obtained by ELISAs correlated well, both in terms of accuracy and precision, with those obtained by a liquid chromatography-electrospray mass spectrometry (LC/ESI/MS/MS) analysis, used as reference method to validate the immunoassays results. The limits of detection reached by using the chemiluminescent assay were 0.03, 0.007 and 0.004 ng ml⁻¹ for carbofuran, carbaryl and methiocarb, respectively.