Advances in Chicken IgY-Based Immunoassays for the Detection of Chemical and Biological Hazards in Food Samples

Abstract

As antibodies are the main biological binder for hazards in food samples, their performance directly determines the sensitivity, specificity, and reproducibility of the developed immunoassay. The overwhelmingly used mammalian-derived antibodies usually suffer from complicated preparation, high cost, frequent bleeding of animals, and sometimes low titer and affinity. Chicken yolk antibody (IgY) has recently attracted considerable attention in the bioanalytical field owing to its advantages in productivity, animal welfare, comparable affinity, and high specificity. However, a broad understanding of the application of IgY-based immunoassay for the detection of chemical and biological hazards in food samples remains limited. Here, we briefly summarized the diversity, structure, and production of IgY including polyclonal and monoclonal formats. Then, a comprehensive overview of the principles, designs, and applications of IgY-based immunoassays for these hazards was reviewed and discussed, including food-borne pathogens, food allergens, veterinary drugs, pesticides, toxins, endocrine disrupting chemicals, etc. Thus, the trend of IgY-based immunoassays is expected, and more IgY types, higher sensitivity, and diversification of recognition-to-signal manners are necessary in the future.

Lateral Flow Strip Biosensors for Foodborne Pathogenic Bacteria via Direct and Indirect Sensing Strategies: A Review

“…The selection of appropriate paired antibodies has an important impact on the sensitivity, specificity, and reproducibility of LFSBs. 31 In addition to antibody performance, the preparation of nanomaterials with good properties is another important step. Unlike the detection of other analytes such as proteins, nucleic acids, and small-molecule compounds (e.g., mycotoxins, antibiotics, drugs), the large size (generally 1−3 μm) of bacteria 32 and the complexity of the biological composition in food samples should also be considered in bacterial LFSBs.…”

“…In antibody-based direct detection, high-specificity monoclonal antibodies are usually labeled with nanomaterials to recognize target bacteria, while high-affinity polyclonal antibodies are immobilized on the T-line to capture target bacteria. The selection of appropriate paired antibodies has an important impact on the sensitivity, specificity, and reproducibility of LFSBs …”

A review on the application of chicken immunoglobulin Y in aquaculture

“…Due to the wide phylogenetic distance between avian and mammalian species, IgY is stable, highly sensitive and does not interfere with diagnostic detection 79,80 . IgY effectively avoids the shortcomings of traditional pathogen diagnostics, such as excessive time, high costs and low sensitivity, as well as the non‐specific cross‐reaction caused by mammalian‐derived antibodies in routine diagnostics.…”

“…Compare to mammal antibody, the application of IgY contains a number of advantages. Animal welfare is a topic of increasing interest, and IgY has been shown to exhibit a higher affinity and a faster response to homologous antigens than the IgG produced by mammals 79,90 . Each laying hen can produce more than 300 eggs and contain 20,000 mg of IgY per year of which 1%–10% is antigen‐specific.…”

“…Compared with antibiotics, the use of IgY as a treatment is environmentally friendly, does not cause adverse reactions or side effects and does not produce chemical or toxic residues 96,97 . The most significant advantage of IgY is non‐invasive, pain‐free, inexpensive and simple to prepare when compared to the acquisition of antibodies via the collection of blood from mammals 7,79 . The numerous advantages of IgY compared with IgG are detailed in Table 8.…”