Projects per year
Abstract
Illicit drug use has a global concern and effective monitoring and interventions is highly required to combat drug abuse. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is an innovative and cost-effective approach to evaluate community-wide drug use trends, compared to traditional population surveys. Here we report for the first time, a novel quantitative community sewage sensor (namely DNA-directed immobilization of aptamer sensors, DDIAS) for rapid and cost-effective estimation of cocaine use trends via WBE. Thiolated single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) probe was hybridized with aptamer ssDNA in solution, followed by co-immobilization with 6-mercapto-hexane onto the gold electrodes to control the surface density to effectively bind with cocaine. DDIAS was optimized to detect cocaine at as low as 10 nM with a dynamic range from 10 nM to 5 μM, which were further employed for the quantification of cocaine in wastewater samples collected from a wastewater treatment plant in seven consecutive days. The concentration pattern of the sampling week is comparable with that from mass spectrometry. Our results demonstrate that the developed DDIAS can be used as community sewage sensors for rapid and cost-effective evaluation of drug use trends, and potentially implemented as a powerful tool for on-site and real-time monitoring of wastewater by un-skilled personnel.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 21024 |
Pages (from-to) | 1-10 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Scientific Reports |
Volume | 6 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 15 Feb 2016 |
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Dive into the research topics of 'Community sewage sensors towards evaluation of drug use trends: detection of cocaine in wastewater with DNA-directed immobilization aptamer sensors'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 1 Finished
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Marie Curie ITN - SEWPROF A New Paradigm in Drug Use and Human Health Risk Assessment: Sewage Profiling at the Community Level management
Kasprzyk-Hordern, B. (PI), Estrela, P. (CoI) & Frost, C. (CoI)
1/10/12 → 30/09/16
Project: EU Commission
Profiles
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Pedro Estrela
- Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering - Professor
- Centre for Bioengineering & Biomedical Technologies (CBio) - Centre Director
- Centre for Therapeutic Innovation
- Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies (CSCT)
- Water Innovation and Research Centre (WIRC)
- Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
- Institute of Sustainability and Climate Change
- Centre for Integrated Materials, Processes & Structures (IMPS)
- Centre for Regenerative Design & Engineering for a Net Positive World (RENEW)
- Bath Institute for the Augmented Human
- Centre of Excellence in Water-Based Early-Warning Systems for Health Protection (CWBE)
Person: Research & Teaching, Core staff, Affiliate staff
Equipment
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MC2-Mass Spectrometry (MS)
Material and Chemical Characterisation (MC2)Facility/equipment: Technology type