Performance assessment of a cylindrospermopsin ELISA with purified compounds and cyanobacterial extracts

ABSTRACTDetecting low amounts of cyanobacterial toxins (cyanotoxins) in water and clinical materials is useful to protect human health and to understand cyanotoxin intoxication events. Commonly-occurring cyanobacterial compounds and extracts of cyanotoxin-producing cyanobacteria were tested by a cylindrospermopsin ELISA, in comparison with HPLC-PDA. Other than the cylindrospermopsin variants, none of the purified cyanobacterial peptides tested showed cross-reactivity in the cylindrospermopsin ELISA up to 100 µg/L, with the exception of nodularin-R. The cylindrospermopsin concentration in cylindrospermopsin-producing cyanobacteria showed good agreement between ELISA and HPLC-PDA. However, extracts of Microcystis, Planktothrix, Nodularia, and Chlorella showed ELISA positives with such non-cylindrospermopsin-producing organisms reporting concentrations greater than 1 µg/L. When cylindrospermopsins were present, the cylindrospermopsin ELISA yielded good quantification, but false positive results from non-cyli...