Detection of Metoprolol in Human Biofluids and Pharmaceuticals via Ion-Transfer Voltammetry at the Nanoscopic Liquid/Liquid Interface Array

Pinning down doping agents

25 August 2017

Banned athletic performance-enhancing drugs, such as metoprolol, could soon become easier to identify thanks to a simple, low-cost sensor platform. The platform, which may be integrated with portable and miniaturized devices, detects minute quantities of ionized drugs in human blood, urine, and serum, as well as pharmaceutical formulations without the need for pretreatment.

A Zhejiang University-led team has created an array of tiny interfaces between two immiscible aqueous and organic electrolyte solutions by perforating an ultrathin silica-based membrane with nanoscopic channels. Metoprolol, present in its ionized form in the aqueous electrolyte, selectively permeates the membrane through the ‘nanochannels’, generating a detectable current. Because of its molecular sieving and antifouling abilities, the platform also differentiates the drug from substances that might generate interfering signals and block the nanochannels, such as glucose, urea, and the protein albumin, which exist in biological samples.

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References

1. Analytical Chemistry 89, 945–951 (2017). doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.6b04099