Screen-Printed Electrodes—A Promising Tool for Antineoplastic Drug Detection (Cisplatin and Bleomycin) in Biological Samples

Abstract

Cancer remains one of the leading causes for death worldwide. Palliative chemotherapy is vital for certain cancer patients, highlighting the critical need for treatment monitoring tools to prevent drug accumulation and mitigate the risk of high toxicity. Therefore, our aim was to evaluate the potential of screen-printed electrodes for the development of sensitive and accurate biosensors for the detection/quantification of antineoplastic drugs. To this purpose, we developed a cisplatin sensor. By functionalizing the gold electrode with human serum albumin and by collecting the electrochemical signal obtained in a H2O2 solution, through voltammetry measurements, we were able to correlate the current measured at 430 mV with the concentration of cisplatin present in human serum samples, with a correlation coefficient of R2 = 0.99. Also, a bleomycin biosensor was developed and proven functional, but further optimization steps were employed in order to improve the accuracy. The developed biosensors have a detection range of 0.0006–43.2 mg/mL for cisplatin and 0.23–7.56 μg/mL for bleomycin in the serum samples. Our preliminary results show that these biosensors can facilitate the real-time monitoring of cisplatin and bleomycin serum levels, allowing healthcare professionals to tailor treatment strategies based on individual patient responses.