Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, December 18 (Xinhua)-- researchers at Ural Federal University (UrFU) have developed a new sensor device to measure blood cholesterol levels. Instead of using a protein compound (an enzyme), the system is replaced by copper chloride (an inorganic analogue). This makes it possible to make cholesterol meters more economical and improves the speed, convenience and accessibility of blood tests. The results of the study were recently published in the Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry.

Andrei Okhokhonin, associate professor of analytical chemistry at UrFU, said: "colorimetry, chromatography and enzymatic methods are currently used for cholesterol determination. However, these methods either use highly aggressive reagents or complex and expensive equipment, or use biomolecules extracted from living organisms. For example, cholesterol oxidase is produced by certain types of bacteria."

"in addition, enzymes are natural polymers and proteins, so they are easily denatured and require certain storage conditions, temperature and acidity systems," he added. we decided to choose the abiotic analogues of this enzyme to make the cholesterol analysis process cheaper, easier and faster. one of the most affordable options is copper chloride, which we first found to be highly sensitive to cholesterol. "

Microfluidic chips that integrate all the elements of the system are printed on a 3D printer-the new technology requires only a small amount of blood to measure cholesterol levels. The blood is placed in an analytical chip containing copper chloride solution in acetonitrile. The chip includes an electrode coupled to a volt-ampere analyzer that provides analysis results. Another benefit of the new chip's ability to analyze cholesterol levels is that magnetic nanoparticles, including polymers with molecular imprinting, can selectively absorb cholesterol while filtering out other substances in the blood that are important to blood composition.

The microfluidic chip that integrates all the elements of the system is printed on a 3D printer, which also promotes the production process of the device and makes it faster. The scientists pointed out that the first test they conducted was not on biological samples, but on a model solution that mimics serum. The next stage of the researchers' work is to test the system on real blood samples.

Scientists have been doing research for several years to develop non-enzyme sensors to determine the amount of biologically important substances such as glucose, urea and creatinine.

CTOnews.com learned that the cholesterol contained in the body is an important substance that cannot be achieved without its normal function. A certain amount of cholesterol can be found in all body fluids and tissues. Cholesterol is an essential component of the cell membrane. Cholesterol is also involved in regulating cell wall permeability and determining which molecules can penetrate the cell and which cannot.

Elevated cholesterol in the blood may represent diseases such as atherosclerosis, hereditary diseases, chronic kidney failure, kidney disease, high blood pressure, liver disease and pancreatic disease.

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