{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,25]],"date-time":"2026-09-25T03:23:05Z","timestamp":1790306585237,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":34,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,3]],"date-time":"2026-03-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1772496000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["32160598"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["32160598"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["32460622"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["32460622"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004479","name":"Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["20242BAB25419"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["20242BAB25419"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004479","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004479","name":"Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["20252BAC240038"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["20252BAC240038"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004479","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Toxins"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Conventional colorimetric lateral flow immunoassays (LFIAs) often suffer from insufficient sensitivity for detecting trace low-molecular-weight contaminants like mycotoxins. The development of colorimetric probes with a high molar extinction coefficient is therefore critical for enhancing detection performance. Although silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) exhibit an extremely high molar extinction coefficient, their practical application in LFIA is hindered by inherent chemical instability and suboptimal visual contrast. To address these limitations, we have engineered robust and high-performance polydopamine-functionalized AgNPs (Ag@PDA NPs) as advanced LFIA signal probes, which were successfully used for detecting aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) in maize. The multifunctional PDA nanoshell effectively shields the Ag core from oxidation and other destabilizing factors, ensuring superior long-term stability and significantly enhancing colorimetric contrast. Moreover, it improves the colloidal hydrophilicity, enabling faster and more uniform migration kinetics along the test strip. Leveraging these engineered properties, the developed assay achieved a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.23 ng mL\u22121 for AFB1 in buffer, representing a remarkable 2.17-fold sensitivity enhancement over conventional colloidal gold-based LFIAs. Validation in spiked maize samples confirmed high reliability, with recoveries ranging from 95.70% to 119.28% and precision (inter-\/intra-assay CVs) below 13.03%.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/toxins18030129","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,3]],"date-time":"2026-03-03T09:45:12Z","timestamp":1772531112000},"page":"129","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Boosting Sensitivity, Stability, and Speed: A Polydopamine-Engineered Silver Nanoparticle Lateral Flow Immunoassay for Aflatoxin B1 in Maize"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"18","author":[{"given":"Xinge","family":"Mo","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Resources, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China"},{"name":"School of Food Science and Technology, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shuhong","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Resources, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China"},{"name":"School of Food Science and Technology, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zixuan","family":"He","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Resources, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China"},{"name":"School of Food Science and Technology, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4762-7105","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Xiaoyang","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Life Science and Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiangmin","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Sino German Joint Research Institute, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5141-0841","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yonghua","family":"Xiong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Resources, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China"},{"name":"School of Food Science and Technology, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China"},{"name":"Sino German Joint Research Institute, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hu","family":"Jiang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Sino German Joint Research Institute, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,3]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e2504044","DOI":"10.4014\/jmb.2504.04044","article-title":"A Review of Research Progress on the Microbial or Enzymatic Degradation and Mechanism of Aflatoxin B1","volume":"35","author":"Zhang","year":"2025","journal-title":"J. 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