Application of Highly Sensitive Immunosensor Based on Optical Waveguide Light-Mode Spectroscopy (OWLS) Technique for the Detection of the Herbicide Active Ingredient Glyphosate

The herbicide active ingredient glyphosate is the most widely applied herbicidal substance worldwide. Currently it is the market-leading pesticide, and its use is projected to further grow 4.5-fold between 2022 and 2029. Today, glyphosate use exceeds one megaton per year worldwide, which represents a serious environmental burden. A factor in the overall boost in the global use of glyphosate has been the spread of glyphosate-tolerant genetically modified (GM) crops that allow post-emergence applications of the herbicide on these transgenic crops. In turn, cultivation of glyphosate-tolerant GM crops represented 56% of the glyphosate use in 2019. Due to its extremely high application rate, xenobiotic behaviour and a water solubility (11.6 mg/mL at 25 °C) unusually high among pesticide active ingredients, glyphosate has become a ubiquitous water pollutant and a primary drinking water contaminant worldwide, presenting a threat to water quality. The goal of our research was to develop a rapid and sensitive method for detecting this herbicide active ingredient. For this purpose, we applied the novel analytical biosensor technique optical waveguide light-mode spectroscopy (OWLS) to the label-free detection of glyphosate in a competitive immunoassay format using glyphosate-specific polyclonal antibodies. After immobilising the antigen conjugate in the form of a glyphosate conjugated to human serum albumin for indirect measurement, the sensor chip was used in a flow-injection analyser system. For the measurements, an antibody stock solution was diluted to 2.5 µg/mL. During the measurement, standard solutions were mixed with the appropriate concentration of antibodies and incubated for 1 min before injection. The linear detection range and the EC(50) value of the competitive detection method were between 0.01 and 100 ng/mL and 0.60 ng/mL, respectively. After investigating the indirect method, we tested the cross-reactivity of the antibody with glyphosate and structurally related compounds.