People with diabetes who are tired of daily blood glucose checks involving painful finger pricks may soon have another option. Patients’ saliva can be used to calculate blood glucose levels thanks to a paper-strip sensor developed by Saudi Arabian researchers. Khaled Salama, Derya Baran, and Sahika Inal, all from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, are leading the research project.
An inkjet printer with conductive polymers was used to produce microscale electrode prototypes onto shiny paper strips using the commercial ink they’d purchased. Finally, the electrodes were coated with an enzyme called glucose oxidase. A Nafion polymer membrane was used to completely cover the object.
Saliva fed to the sensor resulted in an electrical signal as a result of the glucose oxidase interacting with the bodily fluid. It is possible to determine the blood glucose levels of the person who gave the saliva by comparing the signal strength that was picked up by the electrodes to the signal strength that was picked up by the electrodes.
Ascorbic acid, for example, can interfere electrically with conducting polymers in saliva. Nafion membrane, on the other hand, was able to resist the negative electrical charges generated by such chemicals and so kept this from happening. As a result of this membrane, the sensor’s shelf life was extended, allowing it to function even after being kept in a sealed bag for a month.
A non-toxic, soft wearable sensor that fastens to the hand and computes the force of a clutch as well as hand motion has been developed by Harvard University scientists to assist children with cognitive, developmental, and neuromotor problems. A non-toxic, highly conductive liquid solution is one of the sensor’s new components.
Health journal published an article on this.