AsianScientist (Mar. 22, 2019) – In a study published in the journal NANO, scientists in China have developed a method to detect commonly abused drugs in latent fingermarks.
Drug abuse has become an increasingly serious problem all over the world. To identify drug abusers, forensic scientists combine fingermark imaging and drug detection in fingermark residues using nanocarrier-based biolabeling. However, present immunoassay methods only allow one drug to be identified from a single fingermark per test.
In this study, researchers led by Professor Han Gaorong at Zhejiang University, China, have developed a technique to simultaneously detect ketamine and amphetamine in latent fingermarks. The two drugs are among the most commonly abused synthetic drugs in China during recent years, both of which cause adverse effects on the human central nervous system, as well as other health problems.
The researchers used antibodies assembled on carboxyl-modified, fluorescent nanoparticles made of polystyrene, calling their invention biological fluorescent probes (BFPs). Each fluorescent color corresponds to a specific drug antibody—red corresponds to ketamine and green to amphetamine.
BFPs can selectively combine with their target analytes when incubated over the fingermark. The unbound BFPs were washed away, and the presence or absence of drugs could be directly determined by the fluorescent colors remaining on the fingermark. Therefore, fingermark imaging and simultaneous identification of two drugs in a single fingermark is now possible with a one-step test.
The article can be found at: Zhou et al. (2019) Nanocarrier-Based Biological Fluorescent Probes for Simultaneous Detection of Ketamine and Amphetamine in Latent Fingermarks.
———
Source: World Scientific; Photo: Shutterstock.
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.
