Development of immunoassays for the determination of phthalates

The development of highly selective analytical methodologies to monitoring phthalates (phthalic acid esters, PAEs) is important for the safety of environment, food and equipment. As one of the most important and classical interactions in biological systems, antigen-antibody interactions constitute a highly specific chemical nature in biological systems, which inspire us to develop highly specific, highly selective and high-throughput immunoassays for monitoring PAEs in different fields. We here attempt to give an introduction of the recent development particularly focusing on the immunoassay based on the specific binding of antigen-antibody for detecting PAEs. We also present an overview of the potential applications of the antibody labelling strategies to immunoassays for PAE investigations. Finally, we present the major challenges and opportunities regarding the high selectivity and specificity of PAE analysis based on the antigen-antibody interaction. We believe that this review provides critical insights into highly selective PAE analysis and gives an understanding of immunoassays.