TOMSK, Sep 25 –
RIA Tomsk. Scientists of Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU)with colleagues from
the Czech Republic and France created extremely sensitive sensors for free
radicals that can disrupt cell function; the development can be used in
medicine and food industry, the press service of the university said on
Wednesday.
It is explained
that free radicals – are active oxygen forms with oxidizing ability. The main
one is the superoxide radical (O2•–): during chemical transformations, it
passes into other compounds with strong oxidizing properties, after which it
damages proteins, nucleic acids and lipids of cell membranes.
"Scientists
have created extremely sensitive sensors for free oxygen-containing radicals.
According to the researchers, these sensors – are an alternative to traditional
analytical chemical methods of analysis. Under laboratory conditions they
showed sensitivity four orders of magnitude higher", – is said in the
report.
According to the
press service, detecting free radicals in biological objects is important in
medical research. This allows to timely detect incipient changes in organs,
tissues and take action. It is also important for the food industry.
© РИА Томск. Таисия Воронцова
"In the
Czech Republic we are negotiating with representatives of the food industry.
After all, free radicals are markers that products, in particular meat, have
deteriorated or are close to this. And we want to try to test our sensors on
food products", – the engineer of the TPU Research School of Chemistry
& Applied Biomedical Sciences Olga Guselnikova is quoted in the message.
Big step
"Classical
methods of analytical chemistry allow us to detect radicals in concentrations
up to 10-6, and in our case we proposed a minimum detectable concentration of 10-10.
Accordingly, this is more sensitive by four orders of magnitude. By the
standards of chemists – this is a big step", – explains Guselnikova.
The new sensors –
are an example of a hybrid material that combines inorganic and organic
elements. Their base - is a thin gold plate with a wavy surface. Researchers
"planted" organic compounds on it, acting as traps for free radicals.
The wavy surface
of the plate effectively excites the effect of surface plasmon resonance. It
makes the sensors extremely sensitive due to the effect of giant combination
scattering.
"In this
case, the organic component – is a compound with the short name TEMPO. It is a
simple and affordable model compound that is used in other methods, but it has
never been combined with plasmon-active substrates. And this combination of
plasmon effect and chemical characteristics of TEMPO gave us the needed
effect", – explains the scientist.
In the future,
researchers intend to use their sensors to detect nitrogen-containing and
halogen-containing free radicals, as well as to conduct experiments closer to
real biological objects.
The project is
implemented by TPU scientists in collaboration with colleagues from the
University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague (Czech Republic) and
Aix-Marseille University (France). This work was supported by grants from the
Czech Science Foundation and the TPU Competitiveness Improvement Program.
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Process functional diagram of the sensor