**Acknowledgements**

*Mycotoxins and Food Safety*

external site of the cholinesterase [72].

**5.7 Mimotope**

cannot enter to participate to the catalytic site result in the choline unable to exit as proposed by the steric blockade model [70]. Based on the observation in the study conducted by Hansmann et al. [71], their results lead them to two findings. The first observation is the addition of AFB1 in the binding site of the active site did not fulfill the description for inhibitory activity, and this suggests that the AFB1 does not slide to the catalytic site. As for the second observation, mutation of Trp321 to alanine in Dm-AChE put a stop on the inhibitory activity at 10 μM concentration, and AFB1 at a concentration of 100 μM does not inhibit Hu-BuChE enzymatic activity. Also, the researchers assumed that AFB1 could not enter into the active site due to its relatively big size, especially when considering the hydrophilic shell might be further increased in size. Due to this condition, aflatoxin is grouped as a ligand which binds on the

Mimotope or also known as peptide-displaying phage or synthetic peptides [73] is now one of the most reliable methods that are used to identify epitopes which are detected by monoclonal antibodies which are antibodies that made by the same immune cell is given that they are clones of one single parent cell. Next, the usage of mimotope in mycotoxin detection involves the usage of peptides which are identified to be structurally not identical to the original epitope of mycotoxin but at least have the properties to mimic the epitope by binding to the antibodies [74]. Generally, this method shared instead of the same concept with enzymatic inhibition, which in this case, the mimotope will be the one that elicits antibody. Also, this method is beneficial when the original epitopes (example from a mycotoxin) are hard to be isolated and at the same time only available in minimal amount [75]. The first assay that using mimotope for detection is being done by Yuan et al. [76],

where a mimotope is used to identify the mycotoxin deoxynivalenol.

conventional competitive immunoassays by Wild [77].

A study has been conducted by Sellrie et al. [74] which aims to describe a competitive immunoassay for identification of hapten fluorescein by utilizing a monoclonal anti-fluorescein antibody B13-DE1 and a mimotope peptide which act by binding to the antibody. Based on their findings, the peptide mimotope was conjugated to horseradish peroxidase (HRP) which is then competing for binding to monoclonial antibody B13-DE1 with fluorescein. Based on the result, they have proven that mimotopes can be used to utilization in simple yet sensitive immune assays in order to quantitatively identify and determine substance with low molecular weights. As for the reliability and reproducibility, the assay was proved by validation data and found to be in the range which is described in the literature for

**6. Advanced techniques for detection of mycotoxin based biosensor**

effectively routine analysis tools that could meet numerous challenges.

During the last few decades, consumers have become more aware of health and food quality, consequently, research on food safety augmented. The variety of contaminants in many food products requires the development of high-throughput, real-time, and portable detection methods. The evaluation of the different mycotoxins residues in foodstuffs became an essential factor in guaranteeing the products' quality. Hence, it is essential to improve the analytical standards to detect and quantify the presence of a mycotoxin. The operation procedure should be simplified continuously for the convenience of users. The biosensor based nanotechnology can be extensively used in food contaminants monitoring and eventually become

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The authors would like to thank the Universiti Malaysia Sabah for the support of this study.
