A Revisit to a Qualitative Method for the Detection of Organophosphorus Pesticides

摘要

Organophosphorus pesticide poisoning is a serious public health concern. The intensified agricultural practices have increased the dependency on such toxic pesticides [1]. Due to which, the wide availability of such pesticides is responsible for accidental exposure or intentional self-poisoning. Quick diagnosis of such poisoning cases is essential at the emergency settings of a hospital for timely management. The standard method used for the detection of organophosphorus poisoning relies on the estimation of acetylcholinesterase activity [1]. Determination of the post-exposure acetylcholinesterase activity requires a pre-ex-posure value which is not known in most of the cases due to large inter-individual variation [2]. Secondly, other commonly used pesticides like carbamates follow a similar mechanism of inhibition as organophosphorus compounds. For providing specific therapy, differential diagnosis is required. Driven by these factors; an enzyme-free assay for the direct detection of organophosphorus pesticides is an urgent need.