Gao Yanjing, Shirinichi Farbod, Hansrisuk Audrey, Zhu Runyao, Xian Sijie, Lieberman Marya, Webber Matthew J, Wang Yichun
Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, 46556, USA.
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, 46556, USA.
Small. 2025 Apr;21(16):e2407702. doi: 10.1002/smll.202407702. Epub 2024 Dec 20.
Synthetic opioids, especially fentanyl and its analogs, have created an epidemic of abuse and significantly increased overdose deaths in the United States. Current detection methods have drawbacks in their sensitivity, scalability, and portability that limit field-based application to promote public health and safety. The need to detect trace amounts of fentanyl in complex mixtures with other drugs or interferents, and the continued emergence of new fentanyl analogs, further complicates detection. Accordingly, there is an urgent need to develop convenient, rapid, and reliable sensors for fentanyl detection. In this study, a sensor is prepared based on competitive displacement of a fluorescent dye from the cavity of a supramolecular macrocycle, with subsequent fluorescence quenching from graphene quantum dots. This approach can detect and quantify small quantities of fentanyl along with 58 fentanyl analogs, including highly potent variants like carfentanil that are of increasing concern. Detection of these agents is possible even at 0.01 mol% in the presence of common interferents. This simple, rapid, reliable, sensitive, and cost-effective approach couples supramolecular capture with graphene quantum dot nanomaterial quenchers to create a tool with the potential to advance public health and safety in the context of field-based detection of drugs in the fentanyl class.
合成阿片类药物，尤其是芬太尼及其类似物，在美国引发了滥用风潮，并显著增加了过量用药死亡人数。当前的检测方法在灵敏度、可扩展性和便携性方面存在缺陷，限制了其在现场应用以促进公共卫生和安全。在与其他药物或干扰物的复杂混合物中检测痕量芬太尼的需求，以及新芬太尼类似物的不断出现，进一步使检测变得复杂。因此，迫切需要开发用于芬太尼检测的便捷、快速且可靠的传感器。在本研究中，基于荧光染料从超分子大环腔中的竞争性置换，随后石墨烯量子点导致荧光猝灭，制备了一种传感器。这种方法可以检测和定量少量的芬太尼以及58种芬太尼类似物，包括如卡芬太尼等日益受到关注的高效变体。即使在存在常见干扰物的情况下，在0.01 mol%的浓度下也能够检测到这些物质。这种简单、快速、可靠、灵敏且经济高效的方法将超分子捕获与石墨烯量子点纳米材料猝灭剂相结合，创造了一种有潜力在芬太尼类药物现场检测背景下推进公共卫生和安全的工具。
