TY - JOUR A1 - Ecke, Alexander A1 - Schneider, Rudolf T1 - Pitfalls in the Immunochemical Determination of β-Lactam Antibiotics in Water JF - Antibiotics N2 - Contamination of waters with pharmaceuticals is an alarming problem as it may support the evolution of antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, fast and cost-effective analytical methods for potential on-site analysis are desired in order to control the water quality and assure the safety of its use as a source of drinking water. Antibody-based methods, such as the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), can be helpful in this regard but can also have certain pitfalls in store, depending on the analyte. As shown here for the class of β-lactam antibiotics, hydrolysis of the β-lactam ring is a key factor in the immunochemical analysis as it influences antibody recognition. With the antibody used in this study, the limit of detection (LOD) in the immunoassay could be significantly reduced by hydrolysis for the five tested penicillins, with the lowest LOD for carbenicillin (0.2 nmol/L) and the greatest impact on penicillins G and V (reduction by 85%). In addition to enhanced quantification, our strategy also provides access to information about the degree of hydrolysis in water samples as shown for the most abundant penicillin amoxicillin. KW - ELISA KW - Immunoassay KW - β-Lactam KW - Amoxicillin KW - Hydrolysis PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-522832 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics10030298 SN - 2079-6382 VL - 10 IS - 3 SP - 298 PB - MDPI CY - Basel, CH AN - OPUS4-52283 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -