According to the American Liver Foundation (ALF), paracetamol is the leading cause of liver failure in the United States, accounting for over 50% of all cases.
cause 458 deaths per year in the United States, according to studies of archives and databases; 100 are unintentional. The real number of health problems and hospitalizations is likely to be far higher.
Specialists warn that a physician should always be consulted before taking any over-the-counter drug, above all if the patient has a history of liver or kidney disease, and the recommended dosage should always be followed.
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Consumption of this painkiller drug is rising at breakneck speed. Sales are set to reach USD 1.8 trillion worldwide by 2026. This trend reflects the aging of the global population and more frequent outbreaks of epidemic diseases.
However, these drugs are often prescribed in standardized dosages regardless of the patient’s metabolism, clinical conditions, and nutritional health, which may fail to produce the desired effects, and researchers are increasingly turning to personalized prescriptions. With this strategy in mind, researchers reported discovery related to therapeutic drug monitoring in the journal Small.
Sensor that Rapidly Analyzes Saliva to Detect Paracetamol
The newly developed device was fabricated like the silkscreen technique used to print T-shirts. A portion of conductive carbon paste was placed on a screen with the sensor diagram, under which lay a sheet of store-bought clear polyester transparency film. The paste was then dispersed with a squeegee.
The device is portable and uses low-cost sensors, each priced at less than USD 0.02 (two cents), far cheaper than comparable instruments used for this type of analysis, which are often bulky and require trained operators.
The choice of saliva for detection purposes also has advantages, such as ease of collection and the fact that saliva secretion reflects the level of free analytes (or sample components). Furthermore, like other non-invasive body fluids, such as sweat and tears, saliva is increasingly used in therapeutic drug monitoring.
After administration of a single dose in an oral pill, electrodes on the surface of the device can detect the drug quickly and non-invasively in a small sample of human saliva, thanks to the oxidation of the active ingredient by the sensors to produce an electric current.
The protocol is promising for the observation and correction of fluctuations in the absorption of paracetamol and response to the drug. An imprecise dosage can have harmful effects not only on the treatment but also on the patient’s organism.
These types of low-cost electrochemical devices are increasingly seen as an attractive alternative for therapeutic drug monitoring thanks to their analytical characteristics, such as rapid response, potential miniaturization, portability, simplicity, ease of use, versatility, relatively low instrumentation cost, and the possibility of in situ real-time analysis.
A prototype has been developed, with wiring, cables, and connectors, and is ready for technology transfer to a future partner company interested in mass-producing and marketing the device. The next steps will include trials involving a larger number of volunteers and a comparison of the data obtained with a gold-standard technique.
Source: Eurekalert
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