Metallic nanoparticles enabled sensing of drug-of-abuse, an attempt to forensic application

Gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) functions as depressant on the central nerve systems and serves as pharmaceutical agent in the treatment of narcolepsy and alcohol withdraw. In recent year, GHB has been misused as recreational drug due to its ability to induce euphoric feelings. Moreover, it has gained increasing attentions as a popular drug of abuse which is frequently related to drug-facilitated sexual assaults. By now, detection methods based on chromatography exhibit extraordinary sensitivity for GHB sensing. However, such techniques require complicated sample treatment prior to analysis. Optical sensors provide an alternative approach for rapid and simple analysis of GHB samples. Unfortunately, currently reported probes are mostly based on hydrogen bonding to recognize GHB, which may raise concern such as lack of specificity. In this work, we reported a bioinspired strategy for selective sensing of GHB. Such method is based on specific enzyme recognition to allow highly selective detection of GHB with minimum interference even in complex sample matrix (e.g. simulated urine). In addition, the result can be obtained by either quantitative spectroscopy analysis as well as colormetric change observed by naked-eye demonstrating the potential application in drug screening and forensic analysis.