Global Biodefense January 23, 2021
Researchers in Israel have developed a sensitive, rapid, antibody-independent assay for the identification of ricin in body fluids using mass spectrometry. The assay involves lectin affinity capturing of ricin by easy-to-use commercial lactose–agarose beads, followed by tryptic digestion and selected marker identification using targeted Multiple Reaction Monitoring analysis. This enables ricin identification down to 5 ng/mL in serum samples in 2.5 hours. They demonstrated the technology in a clinical scenario where the toxin was identified in an abdominal fluid sample taken 72 h post self-injection of castor beans extraction. This method has the potential application for identifying other lectin toxins. Being antibody independent, the assay can be extended to a multiplexed application for identifying the entire RIP II toxins family without skewing the result by a priori selection of target toxins by specific antibodies…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE