From the Labs. New fluorescent material detects anti-cancer drug overdose in minutes

A new highly fluorescent material with exceptional optical properties has been developed using phosphorene, cystine, and gold (Ph-Cys-Au) which can be used as a visual sensing platform for detecting widely-used anti-cancer drug Methotrexate (MTX). An overdose of MTX is toxic and can affect on lungs, stomach and heart.

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Monitoring therapeutic drugs and their elimination is crucial because they may cause severe side effects on the human body. The MTX value of more than 10 µM in blood plasma is hazardous if it remains in the system for more than 10 hours. MTX is highly expensive and the detection of overdose is time-consuming and involves complex instrumentation. Considering all these issues, the development of fast and sensitive detection using simple methodologies is required.

To address this issue, scientists of Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST), an autonomous institute of Department of Science and Technology (DST) have developed a highly fluorescent material Ph-Cys-Au. The material — made by the team consisting of Professor Neelotpal Sen Sarma, Dr Mojibur R Khan, and research scholars Nasrin Sultana and Chingtham Thanil Singh — has exceptional optical properties and thus can be used as a visual sensing platform for detecting the anti-cancer drug MTX. “This non-enzymatic approach for the detection of anticancer drug Methotrexate can help cytotoxicity screening for therapeutic analysis,” says a press release.

The developed sensing platform outperforms all former systems as the materials are biocompatible with an appreciable detection limit, the release says.

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