Scientists at the Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology, on Tuesday revealed a low-cost and portable smartphone-based sensor system that can assist in managing symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
People with Parkinson’s face a continuous decrease in neuron cells that reduces the levels of dopamine (neurotransmitter) in their body. L-dopa is a chemical that is converted to dopamine in our body and so acts as an anti-Parkinson’s drug.
A correct dosage of L-dopa ensures the disease remains manageable. When L-dopa decreases, Parkinson’s symptoms return. On the other hand, too much of the chemical can cause serious side effects like dyskinesia, gastritis, psychosis, paranoia, and orthostatic hypotension.
IASST’s novel optical sensor system uses a fluorescence turn-on mechanism to instantly detect low levels of L-dopa in biological samples. It also reveals the precise dosage required.
The system acts as an effective probe that “can detect L-dopa in real samples such as blood plasma, sweat, and urine within a linear range of 5 micrometre to 35 micrometre. The corresponding detection limits were determined to be 95.14 nM, 93.81 nM, and 104.04 nM, respectively,” said the researchers, in the paper published in the journal Progress in Neurobiology.
The smartphone-based electronic device comes with an electric circuit connected to a 365nm LED powered by a 5V smartphone charger.
The whole setup is immersed in a dark chamber to isolate it from external light. Visual colour changes during the sensing process were observed by illuminating the sensor probe with the 365 nm LED and capturing images with a smartphone camera.
“The RGB values from the images are used to evaluate L-dopa concentration using a mobile app. This simple, cost-effective, and rapid screening tool is crucial for on-spot analyte detection in remote areas lacking advanced equipment,” the team said.