Investigation of environmental contamination caused by organophosphate pesticides by acetylcholinesterase biosensor

Pesticides are chemical substances that use to control insects, fungis, weeds and other pests. Residuals of pesticides maybe enter to food chain through air, water and soil and cause health problems for ecosystems, birds, animals and humans. Common methods to detect pesticides including, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and gas chromatography (GC). But these methods are time consuming and require a technician to control, so use of biosensor can be useful in this field.
An acetylcholinesterase biosensor was used to detection of organophosphate pesticides (case study: Paraoxon). Qualitative identification of pesticides based on inhibition of the acetylcholinesterase enzyme and reduce activity of it in the face of pesticides. Also Other parameters were investigated such as pH, concentration of pesticides and sustainability of biosensor also.
The designed biosensor showed high sensitivity to paraoxon concentration. Under optimal condition, inhibition of acetylcholinesterase by paraoxon had a linear relation with increasing concentrations of the paraoxon in the range of 10-7 to 10-4 mM. Also prepared sensor showed good stability.
The designed acetylcholinesterase enzymatic biosensor with 2.14 × 10-7 mM identification limit can be use as a sensitive and accurate detector in order to rapid identification pesticides in contaminated environment such as soil and water, in industry and agriculture sectors.