Strategic electrochemical oxidation of vinblastin sulfate (an anticancer drug) via PVP-functionalized strontium oxide nanoparticles

Abstract

Cancer is a primary cause of death worldwide, and considerably impacts mortality rates in low- and middle-income countries. The rise in chemotherapeutic patients and toxicity of cytotoxic agents highlight the need for reliable analytical methods to detect these compounds. The current study presents a simple and straightforward method for producing polyvinylpyrrolidone functionalized strontium oxide nanoparticles (PVP-SrO NPs). The synthesized PVP-SrO NPs were applied as a sensitive sensor to detect vinblastin sulfate (VNB) (an anticancer drug). The synthesized PVP-SrO NPs were characterized using different characterization techniques. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) confirms the functionality of synthesized PVP-SrO NPs. The sharp intense peaks of X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD) confirm the crystalline nature of NPs, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) confirm the nanobeads like morphology, and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) reveals the presence of Sr and O at 68.3% and 23% respectively. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry studies revealed that the PVP-SrO/GCE is more conductive than bare GCE with an R_ct value of 960.4 Ω compared to 2440 Ω. The sensor exhibited a wide linear dynamic range for VNB (0.05 to 60 μM) with low LOD 0.005 μM, and LOD 0.017 μM. The proposed sensor was successfully used for monitoring VNB in human blood serum samples with a satisfactory percent recovery from 96% to 103%. The fabricated sensor exhibits better performance than the reported sensors in terms of processing, simplicity, cost-effectiveness, energy consumption, and enhanced efficacy in a very short time.