Journal of Materials Chemistry B 2018-04-11

PLGA-based nanofibers with biomimetic polynoradrenaline sheath for rapid in vivo sampling of tetrodotoxin and sulfonamides in pufferfish

Yijia Tang, Siming Huang, Jianqiao Xu, Gangfeng Ouyang, Yuan Liu

Index: 10.1039/C8TB00757H

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Abstract

Nanomaterials have shown great potential for the application in microextraction due to their distinguished nanoscale architectures and superior physicochemical properties. Herein, a novel poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fiber, which was incorporated with the self-assembly graphene oxide (GO) coated γ-Al2O3 composite (Al2O3@GO), was fabricated on stainless steel wires via an electrospinning method. The as-spun nanofibers were further sheathed through the self-polymerization of noradrenaline (NA), an agonist found in oysters, to provide a compatible biointerface and antifouling capacity. Acting as the coating substrate of the as-prepared fibers, PLGA was known for its prominent biocompatibility and biodegradability, while the adsorptive Al2O3@GO particles helped to increase their loading capacity. The modified PLGA-based electrospun nanofibers exhibited much higher extraction efficiency compared with the thicker polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) coatings (165 μm) and polyacrylate (PA) coatings (85 μm). Due to the fine biointerface of the PLGA-based nanofibers, rapid extraction equilibrium was observed and sampling with the custom-made Al2O3@GO-PLGA@PNA fibers could be accomplished within 15 min. The fibers were then successfully employed for simultaneous in vivo sampling of tetrodotoxin (TTX) and sulfonamides (SAs) in dorsal-epaxial muscle of living pufferfish (Takifugu obscurus), and satisfactory sensitivities with the limits of detection (LODs) in the range of 0.52-2.30 ng g-1 and comparable accuracies to conventional liquid extraction (LE) method were achieved. In vivo sampling of target pharmaceuticals with the modified nanofibers showed its feasibility for further metabolomics and pharmacokinetics studies in biotissues.