Towards voltammetric point of care detection of leucovorin

Abstract

Current healthcare trends have seen an increased emphasis on the move towards personalised precision medicine to tailor treatments to the individual and their response to diseases and disease therapies. This highlighting a transition from traditional “one size fits all” to a more nuanced approach. Despite advancements in fundamental knowledge to facilitate personalised prevision approaches, lack of resources to implement such plans remains one of the largest hurdles to overcome. Monitoring of drug therapies is one key aspect that could aid in the evolution of precision medicine alongside the development of drugs and targeted treatment systems. This contribution illustrates the potential of square wave voltammetry (SWV) as a proof-of-concept for monitoring of circulating blood concentrations of treatment therapies within artificial urine, using leucovorin calcium (LV) as a model cancer therapy drug. A low cost, easy-to-use and portable sensor has been developed and successfully employed for the detection of LV over the linear range 0.5–30 μM which represents the therapeutically relevant concentrations for LV within artificial urine without any prior sample preparation required with a limit of detection of 2.63 μM and initial investigations into saliva and serum as biological matrices. The developed sensor describe herein exhibits a proof-of-concept for the engagement of such electrochemical sensors as point-of-care devices, where the sensors ease of use and removal of time-consuming and complex sample preparation methods will ultimately increase its usability by physicians, widening the avenues where electrochemical sensors could be employed.