Detection of environmental estrogen by piezoresistive microcantilever sensor: a cutting-edge review

Abstract

Anthropogenic contamination of water resources with micro-organic pollutants has become a heightened concern as many of these compounds have been shown to have estrogen-like action on organismal function. Recent studies have demonstrated that wastewater effluent released to the environment contains estrogen at biologically relevant levels. It is therefore imperative to meet the demand for real-time/on-site detection of environmental estrogen. However, the technology that is currently used for this purpose is expensive, technically complicated, and not available for estrogen level determination at contaminated sites. The primary objective of this paper is to review the present-day technology involved in the design of a robust and rapid Lab-on-a-Chip (LOC), a device that automates multiple functions into a single integrated circuit, which could be implemented for the detection of estrogen in environmental water samples. This paper concisely encompasses different branches of science, e.g. micro/nano-bioelectronics, environmental health, toxicology, and biochemistry to analyze the underlying system dynamics of a LOC for viable detection of environmental pollutants. Particularly, we discuss the detection of environmental estrogen by piezoresistive microcantilever sensor and integration of the sensor with alternating current electrokinetics in a microfluidic chamber.

Keywords:

• Endocrine disruption
• estrogen monitoring
• microcantilever
• alternating current electrokinetics

Acknowledgments

Thanks are due to Andrew Lawler, Division of Research and Innovation, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, for valuable comments on the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

We thank the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley for Internal Seed Research Fund (grant no. 240000295 to Dr. Nazmul Islam and Dr. Md Saydur Rahman).