Paper-Based Electrochemical Devices for the Pharmaceutical Field: State of the Art and Perspectives

Abstract

The current international pharmaceutical scenario encompasses several steps in drug production, with complex and extremely long procedures. In the last few decades, scientific research has been trying to offer valid and reliable solutions to replace or support conventional techniques, in order to facilitate drug development procedures. These innovative approaches may have extremely positive effects in the production chain, supplying fast, and cost-effective quality as well as safety tests on active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and their excipients. In this context, the exploitation of electrochemical paper-based analytical devices (ePADs) is still in its infancy, but is particularly promising in the detection of APIs and excipients in tablets, capsules, suppositories, and injections, as well as for pharmacokinetic bioanalysis in real samples.

Keywords: electrochemical detection; microfluidics; nanomaterials; paper-based devices; pharmaceutical sector.

FIGURE 1

Active pharmaceutical ingredients detected by e-PAD devices.

FIGURE 2

e-PAD platforms for detection of antioxidants. Target analytes: Ascorbic acid (Kit-Anan et al., 2012; Cinti et al., 2018), and cysteine (Santhiago et al., 2013).

FIGURE 3

e-PAD platforms for detection of hormones. Target analytes: 17β-estradiol (Wang Y. et al., 2018; Ming et al., 2019), and HCG (Cao et al., 2017).

FIGURE 4

e-PAD platforms for detection of anti-inflammatory and anesthetic drugs. Target analytes: Diclofenac sodium (Costa-Rama et al., 2019), ketamine (Narang et al., 2017a), alprazolam (Narang et al., 2017b), and diazepam (Narang et al., 2017c).

FIGURE 5

e-PAD platforms for detection of stimulants of the central nervous system. Target analytes: Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (Narang et al., 2018), and dopamine (Rattanarat et al., 2012).