An Immediate-Response Detection System for Gamma-Hydroxybutyrate to Enhance Personal Safety in Social Environments

06/07/202625/07/2026

AI Summary

Graphene-based electrical biosensor achieves 100 fM limit of detection for GHB in standard solutions and artificial urine, displaying high sensitivity and selectivity.
Platform provides rapid, on-site, concentration-dependent electrical responses across a wide dynamic range suitable for clinical and forensic GHB levels.
Enables timely identification in acute presentations, aiding management, forensic investigation, and public health strategies to reduce drug-facilitated sexual assault and related harm.

AI Summary

GHB is endogenously derived, exists at low concentrations, and has a short detection window and weak optical features that complicate conventional assays and contribute to missed or delayed detection.

This study presents a graphene-based electrical biosensor for rapid detection of GHB with high sensitivity and selectivity, achieving a limit of detection (LOD) of 100 fm for standard GHB solutions and a correlated LOD of 100 fm in artificial urine matrices.

The platform enables rapid, on-site detection with concentration-dependent electrical responses across a wide dynamic range suitable for clinically and forensically relevant GHB levels, with broad implications for diagnostics, forensic analysis, and public health strategies to reduce drug-related harm.

Basic summary

Adv Sci (Weinh). 2026 Jul 6:e76399. doi: 10.1002/advs.76399. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Drug misuse and abuse remain critical global challenges, driving public health and societal burdens through increased morbidity and mortality, impaired driving, interpersonal violence, and escalating healthcare and criminal-justice expenditures. Drug-facilitated sexual assault (DFSA) remains a pressing societal concern, and γ-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) is a representative DFSA agent categorized as a date rape drug. GHB is endogenously derived, exists at low concentrations, and has a short detection window and weak optical features that complicate conventional assays and contribute to missed or delayed detection. These challenges are especially important because GHB can induce rapid clinical presentation that overlaps with alcohol or other sedatives, making timely identification critical for acute management and safeguarding decisions. This necessitates reliable detection of exogenous GHB in minimally invasive samples. This study presents a graphene-based electrical biosensor for rapid detection of GHB with high sensitivity and selectivity, achieving a limit of detection (LOD) of 100 fm for standard GHB solutions and a correlated LOD of 100 fm in artificial urine matrices. The platform enables rapid, on-site detection with concentration-dependent electrical responses across a wide dynamic range suitable for clinically and forensically relevant GHB levels, with broad implications for diagnostics, forensic analysis, and public health strategies to reduce drug-related harm.

PMID:42406569 | DOI:10.1002/advs.76399

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