A miniaturized unmodified toray paper-based electrochemical sensing platform for antipsychotic drug analysis

The continuous monitoring of antipsychotic drug release in the patient undergoing treatment is significant for dose monitoring. Hence, as a part of treatment, frequent blood tests are required to detect the drug level. In this context, the development of a miniaturized POC (Point-of-Care) Electrochemical sensing platform plays a sig-nificant role. The present work demonstrates the realization of a paper-based electrochemical sensing device for sensing of antipsychotic drug Clozapine (CLZ). A commercial Toray paper was used as a base electrode that showed high conductivity, mechanical strength, and gas permeability, hence appropriate for electrochemical sensing. Toray fibrous carbon electrodes were used for the sensing of CLZ. The CO2 laser system with optimized speed (6.5 %) and power (4.5 %) was efficiently used to fabricate a simple, low-cost, and miniaturized Toray paper electrochemical device (TPED). The electrode surface was characterized using scanning electron micro-scopy, which showed a high porous gas diffusion layer with denser carbon. Cyclic Voltammetry (CV) and Chronoamperometry (CA) techniques were used to study the electrochemical characterization of the CLZ. The analytical performance of TPED was validated by sensing various concentrations of CLZ in a linear range from 0.5 & mu;M to 5 & mu;M with a Limit of detection (LoD) of 0.5 & mu;M and a Limit of Quantification (LoQ) of 1.69 & mu;M using cyclic voltammetry and the linear from 0.5 & mu;M to 5 & mu;M with a limit of detection (LoD) of 0.01 & mu;M and Limit of Quantification (LoQ) of 0.05 & mu;M using chronoamperometry techniques. Furthermore, the interference mitigation of TPED was examined with other biomolecules. Finally, the practicability of TPED was tested by performing a real sample analysis in blood serum. Based on the analytical performance, it was confirmed that the fabricated device has the ability to be applied in biomedical applications for drug sensing in point-of-care testing.