Paper strip Biosensor for Monitoring Water Quality

This article discusses the paper strip biosensor and why it is the best for monitoring the quality of water from a treatment plant. It highlights its advantages, limitations, and future recommendations. The biosensor is portable, has a short turnaround time, and can detect different contaminants by changing the antibodies. However, it has limitations such as the inability to quantify the contaminant and the possibility of generating false positive results. Further research is needed to eliminate these challenges.

Paper strip Biosensor
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Paper strip Biosensor
A biosensor is a device that utilize a living organism or biological substances usually enzymes to
check for chemical substances or toxins. There are different types of biosensors based on the
different functions they accomplish (Eltzov et al., 2015).The different types of biosensors
include electrochemical biosensor, Amperometric biosensor, blood glucose biosensor, and the
paper strip biosensor. However, all the biosensors have a common mechanism of action. The
analyte is bound to the biological material such as enzyme or antibodies and an electric response
is produced in return. The electrical current is then measured. The functioning of biosensors can
be presented diagrammatically as shown below .In this assignment, there will be an analysis of
the paper strip biosensor on why it should be the preferred in monitoring of the quality of water
from a treatment plan. There will also be an analysis of the shortcomings that the company
should be aware of and the future research and recommendations concerning the same.
An illustration of the mechanism of action of biosensors (Rengaraj, Cruz-Izquierdo, Scott, &
Di Lorenzo, 2018).
For the purposes of monitoring the quality
of water discharged from a sewerage
company in the name of Indah Water
Konsortium Sdn Bhd, the paper strip
biosensor would be the best.
This type of biosensor was developed by
Engineers from the University of Michigan .It is infused with carbon nanotubes which have the
ability to detect any toxin that can be produced by algae in water. Several trials have already
been carried out on this type of biosensor and it has been established that it is 28 times much
better than other complex methods that are used to detect microcystin-LR (Ge et al., 2014). This
is also another chemical compound that is produced by the blue green algae which is found in
nutrient rich waters.

The paper strip biosensor usually work by determining the electrical conductivity of the
nanotubes that are impregnated in the paper. The nanotubes are usually mixed with antibodies
for the MC-LR which is a toxic compound produced by cyanobacteria (Luong, Male, &
Glennon, 2008). Whenever any water that is contaminated with the MC-LR comes in contact
with the paper, the antibodies in the paper moves within the nanotubes so that they can bond with
the MC-LR. The motion of the antibodies cause the nanotubes to spread apart and this alters their
electrical conductivity.
This paper strip has an external monitor that determines the electrical conductivity. The whole
set of the biosensor is equivalent to a home pregnancy kit and the results for the test appear in
less than 12 minutes (Rengaraj, Cruz-Izquierdo, Scott, & Di Lorenzo, 2018). However, the paper
strip biosensor is not only meant for the MC-LR rather than any other toxins since sewerage is a
home to a variety of toxins. To detect other contaminants, the company can easily replace the
antibodies which should bind to the contaminant. For example if the company want to monitor
Corynebacterium, they use the Corynebacterium antibodies.
Advantages of the paper strip biosensor
This type of biosensor has many advantages. The turnaround time is very little. During the trails
for the biosensor, the professors established that it only takes less than 12 minutes for the results
to appear. This is quite a short time as compared to other types of biosensors that results takes
over 3 hours to appear (Sicard et al., 2015). The whole set of the paper strip biosensor is very
small. This size of the paper strip biosensor can be compared to the home based pregnancy test
kit. It can be portable for the tests to be done at the point the wastes are released from the
company up to the time they reach the natural resources like rivers. This is impossible for the
other types of biosensors that are large and are only situated at a stagnant point and this therefore
makes it hard to monitor the contaminants from the wastes (Soni & Jha, 2015). With paper strip
biosensors, it is also possible to detect different contaminants. This is possible by just changing
the antibodies in the nanotubes. If for example the company wants to monitor contamination by
vibrio cholera, the antibodies for this bacteria are placed in the nanotubes and observe the
alteration in electrical conductivity. The paper strip biosensor is also very cheap. When
compared to other types of biosensors, the paper strip biosensor costs less than ten times.

Reduced costs therefore means the profits will be higher for the company and this is just another
reason as to why I would recommend this type of biosensor to the company.
Limitations of paper strip biosensors
Despite the numerous advantages of the paper strip biosensors, they have certain gaps which the
company should be aware of. In this type of biosensor, there is no quantification of the
contaminant. This is because the biosensor is only able to detect the presence or absence of the
contaminant. It thefore becomes difficult for the company to quantify the contaminant and
establish if it can be lethal or not. Another limitation of the paper strip biosensor is that it is a
one-step procedure. This could generate false positive results which could necessitate re-
treatment of the water and this consumes a lot of time and resources from the company leading
to waste. This type of biosensor is quite tedious and time wasting. This is because during
analysis, the antibodies and enzymes should be changed regularly depending on the toxin of
interest. Scientists should therefore make further research to eliminate such challenges if the
paper strip biosensor is to be a force to reckon with in the monitoring of the quality of water
from the water treatment plants.
For several years, there have been challenges in monitoring the quality of water discharged from
different water treatment plans. There have been biosensors that have been used in the past and
they have not been that effective. It is for this reason that necessitated the professors from
Michigan University to come up with a better alternative in the form of the paper strip biosensor.
This biosensor has proved to be very effective due to the short turnaround time and its portable
size besides the ability to detect different harmful contaminants by just changing the antibodies.
It is for these reasons that I would recommend or advice the Indah Water Konsortium Sdn Bhd
national Sewerage Company to use this type of biosensor to monitor the quality of water from
discharge. I would also advice all other water treatment plants in the world to incorporate the
paper strip technology for monitoring the water. However, further research should be done to
eliminate any potential shortcomings of the paper strip biosensors which are yet to be identified
up to date. This will just make the paper strip biosensor to be the best.
References

Eltzov, E., Guttel, S., Low Yuen Kei, A., Sinawang, P. D., Ionescu, R. E., & Marks, R. S.
(2015). Lateral Flow Immunoassays - from Paper Strip to Smartphone Technology.
Electroanalysis, 27(9), 2116-2130. doi:10.1002/elan.201500237
Ge, X., Asiri, A. M., Du, D., Wen, W., Wang, S., & Lin, Y. (2014). Nanomaterial-enhanced
paper-based biosensors. TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry, 58, 31-39.
doi:10.1016/j.trac.2014.03.008
Luong, J. H., Male, K. B., & Glennon, J. D. (2008). Biosensor technology: Technology push
versus market pull. Biotechnology Advances, 26(5), 492-500.
doi:10.1016/j.biotechadv.2008.05.007
Rengaraj, S., Cruz-Izquierdo, Á., Scott, J. L., & Di Lorenzo, M. (2018). Impedimetric paper-
based biosensor for the detection of bacterial contamination in water. Sensors and Actuators B:
Chemical, 265, 50-58. doi:10.1016/j.snb.2018.03.020
Sicard, C., Glen, C., Aubie, B., Wallace, D., Jahanshahi-Anbuhi, S., Pennings, K., …
Filipe, C. D. (2015). Tools for water quality monitoring and mapping using paper-based sensors
and cell phones. Water Research, 70, 360-369. doi:10.1016/j.watres.2014.12.005
Soni, A., & Jha, S. K. (2015). A paper strip based non-invasive glucose biosensor for salivary
analysis. Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 67, 763-768. doi:10.1016/j.bios.2014.09.042