An early detection of prostate cancer drug in water to prevent loss of biodiversity

Abstract

Flutamide is a man-made non-steroidal anti-androgen drug that is extensively used for the prostate cancer therapy. Though the drug has a higher benefit ratio in treating cancer, it also exhibits certain lethal side effects to humans. It acts as an environmental pollutant instigating water pollution and aquatic organism damage by interfering in their reproductive cycle and its effect on aquatic life is a major concern. Hence, it is mandatory to detect the presence of this nitro-aromatic compound. For the effective determination of this analyte, gold modified Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane (abbreviated as POSS-S-Au) based organic-inorganic hybrid material as chemical modifier has been used. This material synthesized via a hydrolysis-condensation reaction technique followed by a phase transfer method is utilized for the first time in the electrochemical determination of anti-cancer drug. The as-synthesized nanomaterial has been subjected to various Physio-chemical characterization and the Fourier Transform- Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) spectra confirm the presence of -SH organic group and Si-O-Si stretch. X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) spectra affirms the presence of silicon, oxygen, gold, and Sulphur owing to the introduction of gold through the thiolation of silicate core. The fabricated sensor showed excellent electro-catalytic activity for detecting flutamide with limit of detection (LOD) of 0.12 μM, and higher sensitivity of around 0.048 μA/μM.