A rapid and high-throughput quantum dots bioassay for monitoring of perfluorooctane sulfonate in environmental water samples

Abstract

Currently HPLC/MS is the state of the art tool for environmental/drinking water perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) monitoring. PFOS can bind to peroxisomal proliferator-activated receptor-alpha (PPARα), which forms heterodimers with retinoid X receptors (RXRs) and binds to PPAR response elements. In this bioassay free PFOS in water samples competes with immobilized PFOS in ELISA plates for a given amount of PPARα-RXRα. It can be determined indirectly by immobilizing PPARα-RXRα-PFOS complex to another plate coated with PPARα antibody and subsequent measuring the level of PPARα-RXRα by using biotin-modified PPARα- RXRα probes-quantum dots-streptavidin detection system. The rapid and high- throughput bioassay demonstrated a detection limit of 2.5ngL-1 with linear range between 2.5ngL-1 and 75ngL-1. Detection results of environmental water samples were highly consistent between the bioassay an