Non-Invasive Point-of-Care Detection of Methamphetamine and Cocaine via Aptamer-Based Lateral Flow Test

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Analytical Chemistry
• Forensic Science

Background:

• Drug abuse poses significant challenges in workplace, traffic, and forensic settings, necessitating reliable on-site monitoring tools.
• Current field testing methods require improvements in portability, sensitivity, non-invasiveness, and speed.
• Saliva is an ideal matrix for drug testing due to its rapid and non-invasive collection.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a point-of-care (POC) lateral flow assay (LFA) for the simultaneous detection of cocaine (COC) and methamphetamine (MET) in saliva.
• To create a sensitive, specific, and stable detection probe using aptamers and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs).
• To validate the developed test system for detecting COC and MET in both synthetic and real patient saliva samples.

Main Methods:

• Development of an aptamer-based lateral flow assay (LFA) utilizing gold nanoparticles (AuNPs).
• Employing a competitive assay format for the detection of small molecules in saliva.
• Analytical validation using synthetic saliva and subsequent testing with real patient samples.

Main Results:

• The aptamer-based LFA demonstrated high specificity and stability for detecting COC and MET.
• The test achieved a limit of detection as low as 5.0 ng/mL for both cocaine and methamphetamine in synthetic saliva.
• Successful detection of COC and MET in real patient samples, with results corroborated by chromatographic methods.

Conclusions:

• An aptamer-based LFA provides a viable solution for rapid, non-invasive, on-site drug abuse monitoring.
• The developed POC test offers high sensitivity and specificity for detecting cocaine and methamphetamine in saliva.
• This technology has potential applications in forensic science, workplace drug testing, and clinical diagnostics.