A cost-effective and rapid quantitative test of polymyxin B sulphate with a simple and portable pressure meter readout

Abstract

Any signals, if their intensities have a simple functional relationship with analyte concentration, can be applied for analytical purposes. Among them, pressure measurement as a signalling technique has been extensively utilized to develop portable and quantitative bioanalysis, with the advantages of highly sensitive detection of a variety of biomedical targets. In this contribution, it was found that polymyxin B sulphate (PMB) could significantly inhibit the catalytic ability of platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs) prepared in different protocols in the H₂O₂ breakdown reaction. By employing sodium citrate as the reducing agent to prepare the platinum nanoparticles (C-PtNPs) as an example and monitoring the pressure signal changes of the C-PtNP catalyzed H₂O₂ breakdown against the reaction time, a sensitive, cost-effective, rapid and reliable analysis method for PMB is established on the basis of the pressure signal readout. The proposed method has a detection limit of 28.6 nM and can selectively detect PMB in both POLY-MxB powder injection and human urine samples, demonstrating its potential in bioanalysis, which would be significant to address biological, clinical and medicinal requirements.