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| Edited By: |Source: ANI |Updated: Apr 13, 2018, 02:13 AM IST
Researchers at the Indiana University (IU) Bloomington, US, have developed a molecule designed to detect cyanide in water samples very quickly, after which it glows under ultraviolet or "black" light.
Although the fluorescent molecule is not yet ready for market, its Indiana University Bloomington creators report that the tool is already able to sense cyanide below the toxicity threshold established by the World Health Organization (WHO).
"This is the first system that works in water at normal pH levels and can be modified at will to enhance its reactivity," said IU Bloomington chemist Dongwhan Lee, who led the research. "We are now looking at how to make the detector more sensitive," he added.
Lee and graduate student Junyong Jo were inspired by life itself - the natural properties of proteins - when they began designing their sensor molecule.
The design of this novel system takes advantage of the structure-organizing "beta turn" motif commonly found in protein structures.
The detector is essentially inert, except in the presence of cyanide, with which it preferentially reacts.
The addition of cyanide induces a subtle but important structural change in the detector that turns it into a pigment that absorbs ultraviolet light (currently 270 nm) and convert it to light emission at around 375 nm, a purplish color at the very edge of human beings' normal vision range.
Cyanide is a negatively charged ion composed of one carbon and one nitrogen atom.
Among its many chemical targets inside cells is the oxidative phosphorylation system, which is a crucial producer of energy.
Cyanide disrupts the system, making it impossible for cells to maintain even the most basic processes, which is one reason cyanide is considered a poison.
In 2003, the wHO reported that cyanide contamination of drinking water is a major problem in developing countries -- and in some developed countries, too.
While cyanide contamination occasionally results in outbreaks of acute illness, in most cases, cyanide contamination levels are low enough that the health effects incurred in humans are less pronounced.
According to Lee, he hopes to develop the detector system so that it can be used to protect people from inadvertently poisoning themselves with cyanide-laced drinking water.
"Considering that cyanide is a readily accessible chemical with fatal consequences, our approach to detect it under physiological conditions is a very exciting finding," he said.
