How do Neogen’s lateral flow Mycotoxins kits work?

Neogen’s Reveal test are lateral flow assays based on competitive immunoassay format. The extract is wicked through a reagent zone, which contains antibodies specific for the target mycotoxin conjugated to colloidal gold particles. If the target mycotoxin is present, it will be captured by the particle-antibody complex. The mycotoxin-labelled antibody complex is them wicked onto a membrane, which contains a zone of mycotoxin. This zone captures any unbound mycotoxin antibody, allowing the particles to concentrate and form a visible line. As the level of mycotoxin in a sample increase, free mycotoxin will bind with the antibody-gold particles. This allows less antibody-gold to be captured in the test zone. Therefore, as the concentration of target mycotoxin in the sample increases, the test line density decreases.