New express method for melatonin determination in the human body

Abstract

Original fundamental properties of Yanson point contacts allow their application to research and technology development at a wide range of surrounding conditions. At low temperature these nanoobjects can be used as a main instrument of Yanson point-contact spectroscopy. At room temperature they can serve as a sensitive element of advanced nanosensors with excellent performance. The most important advantage of point-contact sensors in investigating complex gas media is the spectral nature of the response signal. The discovery of the spectral capabilities of point-contact sensors in the analysis of complex gas media allows us to speak in terms of spectral multifunctionality of Yanson point contacts and the expansion of the possibilities of their spectral application from the spectroscopy of electron-phonon interaction at low temperatures to spectroscopy of gaseous media at room temperatures. Using the spectral response of point-contact sensors, in this work we propose a new non-invasive method for the determination of melatonin, one of the important hormones characterizing the state of the human body. A series of procedures was proposed to find melatonin concentration in the human body as function of the response of a point-contact sensor to the action of the exhaled breath. It has been shown that the proposed method is accurate enough to be used for medical purposes in real time. The results of the study suggest that the problem of non-invasive determination of melatonin concentration in the human body can be successfully solved by using breath tests based on Yanson point contacts.

Quantum mechanisms for selective detection in complex gas mixtures with conductive sensors: analysis of the problem and new results

“…The wide possibilities of sensor analysis provided by the use of the spectral quantum mechanism for selective detection in complex gas mixtures were shown in the development of breath tests to determine human hormonal background [25,26,51]. The fundamental energy information about the quantum interactions in the "point-contact sensor -breath" system allowed the same problem to be solved by using different independent methods.…”

“…To decipher the spectral pro le of breath obtained using point-contact sensors, both the various spectral analysis techniques already tested in the Yanson point-contact spectroscopy can be used [34,36] and new approaches to extraction of the necessary information can be developed [25,51]. The idea implemented in Ref.…”

Noninvasive real-time breath test for controlling hormonal background of the human body: detection of serotonin and melatonin with quantum point-contact sensors

“…If we have a spectrum of a quantum system, new possibilities for its analysis arise. Earlier we demonstrated that, in analogy to the Yanson point-contact spectroscopy, the spectral profiles of exhaled breath obtained using point-contact sensors contain sections which reflect the energy contributions of the system interaction with specific components of a complex gas mixture [24,36]. This means that the energy information contained in the spectrum can be used to reliably identify the contribution of any substance.…”

“…It is the unique combination of spectral and quantum properties of Yanson point contacts which is responsible for the original sensor effects that make pointcontact sensors so drastically different from conventional sensors exploiting the principle of changing electrical conductance [27]. The quantum approach not only allows making use of the new mechanism of detection in gaseous and liquid media [25] responsible for the high selectivity in detection of single markers, but also obtaining a highly informative profile of a complex gas mixture based on its energy parameters [23,24,36]. A characteristic feature of point-contact sensors is the possibility of studying complex gas mixtures in real-time mode.…”

“…For example, it allows one to use the set of quantum states of a system to reliably and selectively detect it in a dynamic mode [25]. At the same time, the integral characteristics of a complex quantum object make it possible to obtain full information about all of its components [24,36]. If we have a spectrum of a quantum system, new possibilities for its analysis arise.…”