Functionalities of electrochemical fluoroquinolone sensors and biosensors

Environmental Science and Pollution Research https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-30223-2 REVIEW ARTICLE Functionalities of electrochemical fluoroquinolone sensors and biosensors Collen Nepfumbada1 · Nomcebo H. Mthombeni2 · Rudzani Sigwadi3 · Rachel F. Ajayi4 · Usisipho Feleni1 · Bhekie B. Mamba1 Received: 6 July 2023 / Accepted: 27 September 2023 © The Author(s) 2023 Abstract Fluoroquinolones (FQs) are a class of broad-spectrum antimicrobial agents that are used to treat variety of infectious diseases. This class of antibiotics was being used for patients exhibiting early symptoms of a human respiratory disease known as the COVID-19 virus. As a result, this outbreak causes an increase in drug-resistant strains and environmental pollution, both of which pose serious threats to biota and human health. Thus, to ensure public health and prevent antimicrobial resistance, it is crucial to develop effective detection methods for FQs determination in water bodies even at trace levels. Due to their characteristics like specificity, selectivity, sensitivity, and low detection limits, electrochemical biosensors are promising future platforms for quick and on-site monitoring of FQs residues in a variety of samples when compared to conventional detection techniques. Despite their excellent properties, biosensor stability continues to be a problem even today. However, the integration of nanomaterials (NMs) could improve biocompatibility, stability, sensitivity, and speed of response in biosensors. This review concentrated on recent developments and contemporary methods in FQs biosensors. Furthermore, a variety of modification materials on the electrode surface are discussed. We also pay more attention to the practical applications of electrochemical biosensors for FQs detection. In addition, the existing challenges, outlook, and promising future perspectives in this field have been proposed. We hope that this review can serve as a bedrock for future researchers and provide new ideas for the development of electrochemical biosensors for antibiotics detection in the future. Keywords Fluoroquinolones · Antibiotics · COVID-19 · Biosensors · Detection · Nanomaterials Introduction Responsible Editor: Weiming Zhang * Usisipho Feleni 1 Institute for Nanotechnology and Water Sustainability (iNanoWS), College of Science, Engineering and Technology (CSET), University of South Africa (UNISA), Florida Campus, Johannesburg 1709, South Africa 2 Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of the Built Environment, Durban University of Technology, Steve Biko Campus, Durban 4001, South Africa 3 Department of Chemical Engineering, University of South Africa (UNISA), Florida Campus, Johannesburg 1709, South Africa 4 SensorLab (University of the Western Cape Sensor Laboratories), 4th Floor Chemical Sciences Building, University of the Western Cape, Robert Sobukwe Road, Bellville, Cape Town 7535, South Africa Antibiotics can be described as either natural or synthetic compounds with useful antibacterial activities that are usually employed in human and veterinary medicine to treat various infectious diseases (Khan 2020; Cardoso et al. 2021). Overuse of antibiotic drugs could lead to bacteria resistance, creating challenges to societies and health centers due to increased patient numbers and costly treatment (Yadav et al. 2021). Antibiotics are categorized according to their mechanism of action or chemical structure and are arranged into classes that include quinolones, ß-lactams, sulphonamides, macrolides, and tetracyclines (Hamnca et al. 2017; Ding et al. 2021). Table 1 shows the common antibiotics and their properties. Among these antibiotics, quinolones such as Fluoroquinolones (FQs) have gained significant interest due to their widespread application in households, hospitals, and veterinary for the treatment of infectious diseases (Teglia et al. 2019). Over the past four years, there has been an increase in the use of FQs due to the COVID-19 pandemic as 13 Vol.:(0123456789) (Nguyen et al. 2023) (Maciel et al. 2023) Human, veterinary Gastrointestinal disturbances Hepatic toxicity, haemolytic anemia Rashes, fever Both gram-positive Inhibition of peptiand gram-negative doglycan layer 14;15;16 membered Streptococcal/pneu- Inhibition in mococcal bacterial protein macrocyclic lacbiosynthesis tone ring Macrolides Lactam ring 3-C and N ring β-lactams Fluoroquinolones The Sulfonyl group Both gram-positive (O = S = O) is con- and negative nected to an amine group (− NH2) Bicyclic core Gram-negative structure bacteria Sulphonamides Inhibition of bacterial DNA Gyrase Sulphanilamide Sulfamethoxazole Sulfadiazine Ciprofloxacin Norfloxacin Levofloxacin Penicillin Amoxicillin Cephalosporins Erythromycin Clarithromycin Roxithromycin Both gram-positive and negative bacteria Four hydrocarbon rings (cyclins) Tetracycline 13 Human, veterinary Human, veterinary, human, human, C17H18FN3O3 C16H18FN3O3 C18H20FN3O4 C16H18N2O4S C16H19N3O5S C16H21N3O8S C37H67NO13 C38H69NO13 C41H76N2O15 (Bhatt and Chatterjee 2022) Diarrhea, vomiting, Veterinary, veteriand nausea nary, human C6H8N2O2S C11H11N3O2S C12H14N4O4S (Zhou et al. 2022) Human, veterinary, human, Hepatotoxic C22H24N2O8 C22H24N2O9 C22H24N2O8 Tetracycline Oxytetracycline Doxycycline Inhibition in protein synthesis through binding with ribosome Inhibition in folic acid synthesis (Liu et al. 2018) Application Chemical formula Side effects Example Mechanism of action Target microbes Type of antibiotics Functional groups Table 1  Detailed description of different antibiotics and their general characteristics Ref Environmental Science and Pollution Research there is no evidence of any specific recommended treatment measures for patients with confirmed COVID-19 (Miranda et al. 2020; Ebrahimi and Akhavan 2022). As a result, FQs are frequently detected in different environmental compartments due to an incomplete metabolism in the target organism and inefficient wastewater treatment (Cuprys et al. 2018; Gou et al. 2021), leading to accumulation of these drugs in human bodies through drinking water, which in turn poses serious detrimental health effects to both humans and the environment (Gaudin 2017; Kraemer et al. 2019; Lan et al. 2017). Hence, to prevent further antibiotic contamination, national governments should limit antibiotic use in livestock and aquaculture (Ters 2022). In this outlook, we are yet to find the report exploiting safe concentration for commonly used antibiotics in water regulated by national governments to ensure safety for living organisms. Thus, there is a need for the development of new reliable approaches for detecting antibiotics and their metabolites in the environment to ensure public health safety. According to the published literature and national studies, the concentrations of pharmaceutical products in surface and groundwater impacted by wastewater discharges are typically less than 0.1 µg L −1 (or 100 ng L−1 (...truncated)