Insecticide Detection through Protein Engineering of Nippostrongylus brasiliensis Acetylcholinesterase B

Abstract

The sensitivity of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) biosensors for insecticide detection could be increased substantially by engineering AChE B of Nippostrongylus brasiliensis. The introduction of 10 single and 4 double mutations into the AChE peptide chain led to an increase in sensitivity to 10 of the 11 insecticides tested. The combination of three mutants with the wild-type enzyme in a multienzyme biosensor array enabled the detection of 11 out of the 14 most important organophosphates and carbamates at concentrations below 10 μg/kg, the maximum residue limit of infant food. The detection limit for pirimiphos methyl could be reduced from 10 μg/L to a value as low as 1 ng/L (3.5 × 10^-12 mol/L). The newly created biosensors exhibited an extraordinary high storage stability. There was no loss of sensitivity of N. brasiliensis AChE B, immobilized on screen-printed, disposable electrodes, even after 17-month storage at room temperature.