A novel gold particle-based paper sensor for sensitively detecting carprofen in bovine muscle

Carprofen (CAR) is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug commonly used to treat various musculoskeletal diseases and infections in food animals. While CAR residues in food animal tissues caused by veterinary medicine abuse are a potential danger to human health. In this study, a high-affinity monoclonal antibody (mAb) against CAR was prepared, and then an immunochromatographic strip for rapidly screening CAR in bovine muscle was developed to help enforce regulatory compliance. The visual detection limit (cut-off value) by the naked eye of the fabricated test strip was 12.5 ng g(-1). Scanning by the strip reader, the IC50 of the test strip was calculated as 1.743 ng g(-1), and the limit of detection (LOD, IC10) was 0.283 ng g(-1). The proposed method provided an efficient tool for monitoring CAR in bovine muscle. Meantime, our work suggested great potential for the analysis of CAR residues in other food matrixes.