Novel simple enzymatic potentiometric approach for toxicological assessment of anticholinesterase and Alzheimer’s drugs Enzymatic approach toxicological assessment

Background and objectives A simple and sensitive enzymatic potentiometric biosensor has been developed for toxicological studies of anticholinesterase drugs based on their inhibitory effect on cholinesterase activity. To verify the applicability, eight pharmaceutical formulations for Alzheimer′s treatment were assayed, namely rivastigmine, pyridostigmine, cyclopentolate, memantine, meclofenoxate, carbamazepine, oxfendazole, and methotrexate. Materials and methods Disposable screen-printed potentiometric sensors were utilized for monitoring the cholinesterase activity. The reaction conditions including the optimal enzyme substrate, incubation periods, and the linearity range for each drug were optimized for each drug. Results and conclusion Different sensitivities within subnanogram levels were reported based on the inhibitory effect of the aforementioned pharmaceutical compounds and their LD50 value. The proposed method showed improved sensitivity for the investigated compounds compared with their reported electroanalytical approaches. The introduced analysis protocol was successfully utilized for assaying the cited drugs in their pharmaceutical and environmental samples using a portable measuring system. Moreover, the toxicity of the pharmaceutical compounds against in-vitro cholinesterase enzymes studies can be performed with simple instrumentation requirements.