Highly Sensitive and Specific Detection of Staphylococcal Enterotoxins SEA, SEG, SEH, and SEI by Immunoassay

Staphylococcal food poisoning (SFP) is one of the most common foodborne diseases worldwide, resulting from the ingestion of staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs), primarily SE type A (SEA), which is produced in food by enterotoxigenic strains of staphylococci, mainly S. aureus. Since newly identified SEs have been shown to have emetic properties and the genes encoding them have been found in food involved in poisoning outbreaks, it is necessary to have reliable tools to prove the presence of the toxins themselves, to clarify the role played by these non-classical SEs, and to precisely document SFP outbreaks. We have produced and characterized monoclonal antibodies directed specifically against SE type G, H or I (SEG, SEH or SEI respectively) or SEA. With these antibodies, we have developed, for each of these four targets, highly sensitive, specific, and reliable 3-h sandwich enzyme immunoassays that we evaluated for their suitability for SE detection in different matrices (bacterial cultures of S. aureus, contaminated food, human samples) for different purposes (strain characterization, food safety, biological threat detection, diagnosis). We also initiated and described for the first time the development of monoplex and quintuplex (SEA, SE type B (SEB), SEG, SEH, and SEI) lateral flow immunoassays for these new staphylococcal enterotoxins. The detection limits in buffer were under 10 pg/mL (0.4 pM) by enzyme immunoassays and at least 300 pg/mL (11 pM) by immunochromatography for all target toxins with no cross-reactivity observed. Spiking studies and/or bacterial supernatant analysis demonstrated the applicability of the developed methods, which could become reliable detection tools for the routine investigation of SEG, SEH, and SEI.

Automated summary

Staphylococcal food poisoning, caused by staphylococcal enterotoxins, is a common foodborne disease. Researchers have developed monoclonal antibodies specific for different SEs and highly sensitive enzyme immunoassays for their detection, providing reliable tools for investigating SFP outbreaks.