Glucose Monitoring Through Saliva – Scientists Develop A New Device
Diabetes is a disease that cannot be cured but sure can be managed. But managing it becomes hard when a patient is required to check the blood level by piercing his or her finger every day to monitor it. With the hope of making this better, now a team of international researchers has developed a technology, a self-powered glucose biosensor technology base device that can use saliva samples can measure the blood sugar level. Without any use of external electrical energy, this device can work inside the body.
For patients with diabetes, continuous monitoring of fluctuating sugar levels in the blood is often required. The painful finger-pricking process could be mitigated by the implantable glucose biosensors, however, the implantation is a complicated process as the electricity requirement for the implantable glucose-sensing devices is a major challenge.
The Scientist and research team member, Dr. P. Tamilarasan, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research – Central Electrochemical Research Institute (CSIR-CERI) said that “A demonstration of lin
ear response to glucose at concentrations relevant for non-diabetic and diabetic saliva has been shown by the team. For the accurate, quick and early detection of abnormalities in metabolism, this sensor will be useful and it can help in controlling, preventing and monitoring many metabolic disorders, including diabetes.Electrical energy is required for the operation of any implantable electrochemical or electrical device. A challenging task is to produce electricity inside the human body.
Here, without an external electrical supply, this device can function inside the body. To extract electrons proportional to the glucose level in the bodily fluid, this technology uses an enzyme and an electron-transporting n-type semiconductor polymer. For both electricity generation as well as for glucose sensing, the polymer-based electrode can be used. On the other hand, to generate electricity using the glucose in bodily fluids, an enzymatic fuel cell using the same materials has been developed. A transistor made up of the polymer senses the glucose and the same polymer is powered by the enzymatic fuel cell made up of the same polymer electrode using glucose as a fuel.
Utilizing glucose, the enzymatic fuel cell could power other implantable electronic devices. The energy that is sufficient enough to operate an organic electrochemical transistor type glucose sensor is generated by this technology.
As of now, the materials have been developed by the research team and its qualitatively and quantitatively operation has been demonstrated. The technology could lead to practical application with further studies on the biocompatibility, device design, and in-vivo characterizations.
Editor’s Note: Glucose Monitoring Through Saliva
