ABSTRACT: 

Mycotoxins cause both chronic and acute effects on human and animal health. This work successfully developed microarray lateral flow immunoassay (µLFIA) for detection of five regulated mycotoxins commonly found in food and feed samples, including Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), deoxynivalenol (DON), fumonisin B1 (FB1), T-2 toxin (T2), and zearalenone (ZEA). µLFIA leverages a novel fluorescent pentahelicene dye as a reporter and a in-housed engineered MycoSMART Reader as a detector with portability, ease-of-use, and affordability. Many parameters including concentrations of mycotoxin-BSA, specific anti-mycotoxin antibody, and reporter were optimized for fabrication of µLFIA. The optimal conditions enable µLFIA to detect single and multiple mycotoxins accurately and quantitatively. The ranges of detection were 0.05-0.5 ng/mL for AFB1, 5-500 ng/mL for DON, 10-500 ng/mL for FB1, 2.5-50 ng/mL for T2, and 1-10 ng/mL for ZEA. The point-of-care µLFIA presents as an alternative method for mycotoxin detection in agricultural commodities.