AuNPs based double network polymeric hybrid hydrogel for detection of morphine in exhaled breath condensate samples
AuNPs based double network polymeric hybrid hydrogel for detection of morphine in exhaled breath condensate samples
Zahra Karimzadeh,1Mansour Mahmoudpour,2,*
1. Research Center for Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology, Biomedicine Institute, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran 2. Drug Applied Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
Introduction: Morphine belongs to benzyl-iso-quinolines which alleviates chronic and severe pain by regulating the pain receptors in the nervous system. In the case of overdosing, morphine not only impacts various immune functions but also can lead to dangerous diseases. These issues and the extensive use of morphine require the design of suitable, simple, and selective methods for the accurate sensing of morphine in various biological and drug specimens. Colorimetric probes based on AuNPs received more attention in fields of chemical substances’ determination. The visual occurrence of color intensity change by the addition of different analytes to the NPs is related to the variation of NPs surrounding media. The determination mechanism is based on variation in LSPR absorption band of NPs in the visible region owing to the oscillation of conduction electron after analyte adding. The dissimilar color change is related to NPs aggregation affected by surface chemical reaction and/or the morphology transitions. Herein, we attempt to develop a simple, eco-friendly, and biocompatible nanoprobe based on double network hydrogel by incorporating AuNPs in gelatin/agarose biopolymer matrices for morphine monitoring in exhaled breath condensate (EBC) samples.
Methods: For synthesizing agarose/AuNPs/gelatin hydrogel, HAuCl4 with 10-3 mol.L-1 was poured into the mixture of agarose and gelatin solution (5 % W/V) in a conical flask which were heated up to 90 ̊C. The mixture of solutions was stirred for 20 min with a magnetic stirrer. After dropping chilled NaBH4 solution as a reduction agent, change in color from yellow to pink was occured indicating the fabrication of AuNPs. Finally, the obtained nanoprobe was reached to the room temperature to form hydrogel. For samples preparation, morphine with different concentrations (0.01-1.0 µg.mL−1) was spiked into the 100 μL of human EBC sample.
Results: The morphine detection is perfomed by the color change from pink to blue following a decrease in the LSPR band of agarose/AuNPs/gelatin after adding various concentrations of morphine. Under the optimum condition, a good limit of detection (LOD) of 0.006 μg.mL−1 with a linear concentration response range of 0.01-1.0 µg.mL−1 was determined at 523 nm for morphine in exhaled breath condensate (EBC) sample.
Conclusion: A reliable colorimetric agarose/AuNPs/gelatin based hydrogel nanoprobe has been successfully developed for the determination of morphine in EBC. The validated method has represented several appropriate properties including low LOD, fast response, few interfering substances, low cost, high sensitivity and selectivity for determination of morphine in the EBC sample. This system is effectively employed for the determination of morphine in EBC with recoveries of ranged 94.0-110.0 %.