Iranian researchers succeeded in designing of a biosensor to determine dopamine level, which has high detection limit and decreases clinical diagnosis costs due to its high accuracy and speed.
Dopamine is a neural transferring molecule into brain whose insufficient transference causes some diseases such as Parkinson's. Some diseases happen due to the decrease in the level of dopamine while some others such as Schizophrenia is a result of excess activity of dopamine. Electrochemical activity of dopamine has mortal role on physiological actions of the body and it is necessary to determine the level of dopamine in some disorders. Therefore, it is important to develop electrochemical methods to detect and measure dopamine level.
According to the researchers, the aim of the research was to design and produce a system for quicker and more cost-efficient detection of dopamine in comparison with usual methods. To this end, a biosensor was produced by using single-walled carbon nanotubes and hemoglobin protein, which can detect the level of dopamine at millimolar scales.
Dopamine detection range has been predicted to be 2-11 millimolar. The designing of the sensor results in reduction of product cost and increase in stability, speed and accuracy of dopamine detection in comparison with usual methods.
Results of the research have been published in International Journal of Electrochemical Science, vol. 9, issue 12, 2014, pp. 8367-8379.