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Paper-based lateral flow assay using rhodamine B–loaded polymersomes for the colorimetric determination of synthetic cannabinoids in saliva

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Abstract

Synthetic cannabinoids are one of the many substances of abuse widely spreading in modern society. Medical practitioners and law enforcement alike highly seek portable, efficient, and reliable tools for on-site detection and diagnostics. Here, we propose a colorimetric lateral flow assay (LFA) combined with dye-loaded polymersome to detect the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-073 efficiently. Rhodamine B–loaded polymersome was conjugated to antibodies and fully characterized. Two LFA were proposed (sandwich and competitive), showing a high level of sensitivity with a limit of detection (LOD) reaching 0.53 and 0.31 ng/mL, respectively. The competitive assay was further analyzed by fluorescence, where the LOD reached 0.16 ng/mL. The application of the LFA over spiked synthetic saliva or real human saliva demonstrated an overall response of 94% for the sandwich assay and 97% for the competitive LFA. The selectivity of the system was assessed in the presence of various interferents. The analytical performance of the LFA system showed a coefficient of variation below 6%. The current LFA system appears as a plausible system for non-invasive detection of substance abuse and shows promise for synthetic cannabinoid on-site sensing.

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All data are included in the current manuscript. Raw data are available upon request.

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Funding

Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Development, provided the support for the infrastructure of EGE MATAL (Ege University/Izmir) via 2016K121190 grant.

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  1. Hichem Moulahouma and Faezeh Ghorbanizamania contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Ege University, 35100-Bornova, Izmir, Turkey

    Hichem Moulahoum, Faezeh Ghorbanizamani & Suna Timur

  2. Central Research Test and Analysis Laboratory Application and Research Center, Ege University, 35100-Bornova, Izmir, Turkey

    Suna Timur

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  1. Hichem Moulahoum
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Moulahoum, H., Ghorbanizamani, F. & Timur, S. Paper-based lateral flow assay using rhodamine B–loaded polymersomes for the colorimetric determination of synthetic cannabinoids in saliva. Microchim Acta 188, 402 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-021-05062-y

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