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An Automated and Highly Sensitive Chemiluminescence Immunoassay for Diagnosing Mushroom Poisoning

Summary

Poisoning from deadly mushrooms like Amanita phalloides kills about 90% of poisoning victims. Current methods to diagnose these poisonings take too long for doctors to help patients quickly. This study describes a new automated test that can detect the toxic compounds (phallotoxins) in patient blood and urine in just 45 minutes with very high accuracy, potentially saving lives by enabling faster medical treatment.

Background

Mushroom poisoning caused by Amanita peptide toxins accounts for approximately 90% of deaths from mushroom poisoning. Phallotoxins are the fastest-acting toxins among Amanita peptide toxins, causing death in mice within 2-5 hours. Current detection methods are time-consuming and do not meet clinical needs for rapid diagnosis.

Objective

To develop a highly sensitive and automated magnetic bead-based chemiluminescence immunoassay (MB-based CLIA) for early and rapid diagnosis of mushroom poisoning, specifically targeting phallotoxins detection in human serum and urine.

Results

The LODs were 0.010 ng/ml in human serum and 0.009 ng/ml in human urine for phallotoxins. Recoveries ranged from 81.6 to 95.6% with coefficient of variation <12.9%. The entire automated process takes only 45 minutes. Results from Amanita phalloides samples were in accordance with HPLC-MS/MS analysis.

Conclusion

The automated MB-based CLIA demonstrates high sensitivity, repeatability, stability, and accuracy for phallotoxins detection. This method is significantly more sensitive than previously reported immunoassays and offers a promising option for rapid clinical diagnosis of mushroom poisoning with reduced manual operation and improved detection throughput.
  • Published in:Frontiers in Chemistry,
  • Study Type:Analytical Method Development Study,
  • Source: PMID: 35004629
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