Rapid colorimetric sensing assay based on gold nanoparticles combined with discrete wavelength transform- intelligent fuzzy inference system for the simultaneous determination of antibiotic drugs in biological fluid and injection vial powder

Abstract

Determining drugs in pharmaceutical formulations, urine, and plasma samples is crucial. For this purpose, chromatographic methods are commonly used. However, this method is expensive, time-consuming, and requires complex instruments. In contrast, the colorimetric method using a UV–Vis spectrophotometer along with chemometric approaches can be employed for the simultaneous determination of trace components in real samples. In this study, a colorimetric assay combined with discrete wavelength transform (DWT) incorporated with principal component analysis (PCA) and fuzzy inference system (FIS) was presented for the simultaneous determination of ultra-trace of two antibiotics named imipenem (IPM) and cilastatin (CS) in binary mixtures and biological samples using localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of citrate-capped gold nanoparticles (Citrate-AuNPs). The detection of these drugs was carried out by observing the color change of the AuNPs solution from red to blue due to the aggregation induced by both components. The aggregation of citrate-AuNPs was characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and UV–Vis spectrometry. The linear calibration graph was achieved within a concentration range of 200–1000 μg/L for IMP and 50–800 μg/L components with a limit of detection (LOD) of 30.55 μg/L for IMP and 33.00 μg/L for CS, while the limit of quantification (LOQ) was 92.60 and 100.00 μg/L for IMP and CS, respectively. Various wavelet families named Daubechies with the second order (db2), db of order 4 (db4), and Coiflet of second order (coif2) were used to decompose the absorption of binary mixtures containing IMP and CS in the DWT method. After applying dimensionality reduction by PCA, two inputs entered the environment of the FIS. The best wavelet family was coif2 in combination with FIS with a coefficient of determination (R²) of 1, root mean square error (RMSE) lower than 2.2, and mean recovery higher than 99 % for both components. The analysis of IMP and CS in spike human urine samples revealed that mean recovery was higher than 96 % and RSD was lower than 1.6 %. The injection vial powder containing IMP and CS analysis was done by the proposed approach and the HPLC method, and the absence of any significant difference between these two methods was measured by the analysis of variance (ANOVA) test. The suggested colorimetric method was found to be easy, selective, sensitive, and quick toward pharmaceutical components, which detects IMP and CS within minutes with the naked eye and without the need for sophisticated instruments. On the other hand, the simultaneous quantitative determination of the mentioned components in different samples (pharmaceutical formulation and biological fluids) can be used, which is faster and easier than common chromatographic methods.