Abstract
Spirotetramat-a tetramic acid insecticide-is rapidly metabolized or degraded to give spirotetramat-enol; so, common residue definitions include the sum of both compounds. In the present study, two spirotetramat-functionalized derivatives (haptens) have been designed to generate immunoreagents to these molecules for rapid immunochemical analysis. Haptens have been synthesized with alternative linker tethering sites and, for the first time, high-affinity antibodies have been generated with different specificities to these active principles. Two sensitive assays have been developed using the same antibody in different formats, and by using linker-site heterologous haptens, the selectivity of the final immunoassay could be improved. A generic immunoassay with sensitivity similar to spirotetramat and spirotetramat-enol and a specific assay of spirotetramat-enol have been developed. The described antibody and bioconjugates showed great potential for sensitive immunosensor development and analysis of this complex analyte.