Guwahati: A team of interdisciplinary researchers at the Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST) in Guwahati, an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), has developed an optical sensing platform for cholesterol detection based on silk fibre functionalized using phosphorene quantum dots.
The Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST) is a premier scientific research organization in the north-east region.
This device offers a low-cost, eco-friendly, and highly sensitive method for cholesterol detection, critical for preventing several chronic and fatal illnesses.
The optical sensing platform developed for cholesterol detection can help identify early symptoms of diseases like atherosclerosis, venous thrombosis, cardiovascular diseases, heart disease, myocardial infarction, hypertension, and cancer.
A point-of-care (POC) device has been developed in the laboratory scale for detecting cholesterol. It can sense cholesterol in trace amounts, even below the preferred range. It can be an efficient tool for routine monitoring of cholesterol levels in the human body.
The project, led by Prof. Neelotpal Sen Sarma, a retired Professor; Dr. Asis Bala, an Associate Professor; and Nasrin Sultana, a DST INSPIRE Senior Research Fellow, incorporated the material— the silk fibre— into a cellulose nitrate membrane to create an electrical sensing platform for cholesterol detection.
The synthesized sensors were highly sensitive as well as selective for cholesterol detection. Furthermore, the electrical sensing platform generates no e-waste, a key advantage of the fabricated device.
Both sensing platforms respond similarly to real-world media such as human blood serum, experimental rat blood serum, and milk. The work was published in the “Nanoscale” Journal, published by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Cholesterol is an essential lipid in humans, produced by the liver. It is the precursor for vitamin D, bile acids, and steroid hormones.
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Cholesterol is necessary for animal tissues, blood, and nerve cells, and it is transported by blood in mammals. There are two types of cholesterol: LDL (low-density lipoprotein), often referred to as ‘bad’ cholesterol because it can accumulate in the walls of arteries and contribute to severe diseases, and HDL (high-density lipoprotein), known as ‘good’ cholesterol.
