Sildenafil is used to treat erectile dysfunction and pulmonary arterial hypertension but is often illicitly added to energy drinks and chocolates. This study introduces a lateral flow strip test using aptamers specific to sildenafil for detecting its illegal presence in food. The process involved using graphene oxide SELEX to identify high-affinity aptamers, which were then converted into molecular gate structures on mesoporous silica nanoparticles, creating a unique signaling system. This system was integrated into lateral flow chromatography strips and tested on buffers and chocolate samples containing sildenafil. The method simplifies the lateral flow assay (LFA) for small molecules and provides a tool for signal amplification. The detection limit for these strips was found to be 68.2 nM (31.8 µg/kg) in spiked food samples.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bios14120620 | DOI Listing |
Toxins (Basel)
November 2024
CIMO, LA SusTEC, Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Campus de Santa Apolónia, 5300-253 Bragança, Portugal.
Aflatoxins constitute a significant risk in staple foods produced in African countries. This research aimed to analyze the total aflatoxin (AFT) contamination of various staple foods in Angola and Mozambique. A total of 233 samples of corn, peanuts, beans, rice, and cassava flour collected from farmers or local markets from the province of Cuanza Sul, Angola, and the provinces of Gaza and Inhambane, South Mozambique, were analyzed for the presence of AFT using the lateral flow strip method via AgraStrip Pro WATEX (Romer).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Fungi (Basel)
December 2024
Pneumology Department, Central Universitary Hospital of Asturias (HUCA), 33011 Oviedo, Spain.
The importance of fungal pathogens in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients and their diagnosis remains a challenge, so our aim was to analyze the influence of the detection of fungi in sputum by using conventional culture and molecular techniques, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), lateral flow devices (LFDs), and galactomannan (GM) on exacerbations in patients with cystic fibrosis. A prospective study was conducted in patients via follow-up in the CF Unit of the Central University Hospital of Asturias from January 2021 to April 2022. Adult patients with at least one documented exacerbation were included.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Fungi (Basel)
November 2024
Department of Chemistry, Colorado State University, 1801 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA.
In the last decade, pulmonary fungal infections such as invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) have increased in incidence due to the increased number of immunocompromised individuals. This increase is especially problematic when considering mortality rates associated with IPA are upwards of 70%. This high mortality rate is due to, in part, the length of time it takes to diagnose a patient with IPA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiosensors (Basel)
December 2024
Department of Medical Biology, School of Medicine, Atilim University, Ankara 06830, Turkey.
Sildenafil is used to treat erectile dysfunction and pulmonary arterial hypertension but is often illicitly added to energy drinks and chocolates. This study introduces a lateral flow strip test using aptamers specific to sildenafil for detecting its illegal presence in food. The process involved using graphene oxide SELEX to identify high-affinity aptamers, which were then converted into molecular gate structures on mesoporous silica nanoparticles, creating a unique signaling system.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiosensors (Basel)
December 2024
School of Engineering, Ulster University, Belfast BT15 1ED, UK.
Lateral flow assays are widely used in point-of-care diagnostics but face challenges in sensitivity and accuracy when detecting low analyte concentrations, such as thyroid-stimulating hormone biomarkers. This study aims to enhance assay performance by leveraging textural features and hybrid artificial intelligence models. A modified Gray-Level Co-occurrence Matrix, termed the Averaged Horizontal Multiple Offsets Gray-Level Co-occurrence Matrix, was utilised to compute the textural features of the biosensor assay images.
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