Blood sugar testing using Saliva-Goodbye to pricky needles

Almost a good percent of humans suffer from diabetes.A diabetes patient requires frequent blood tests to check the sugar concentration in blood and to manage them to be normal.Just imagine how many pricks a diabetes patient makes to perform these tests.Ofcourse to most people,these needles pricks doesnt matter much ,but still it feels to good to hear that a new technology for blood testing has been found for future that gets rid of these painful injections.This will benefit the children, who mostly looks forward these painful pricks with fear.The new technology uses saliva for computing blood sugar level,thus eliminating the need of taking blood samples frequently.The patient just needs to place the sample on a small device that checks the glucose level in it.

Saliva is collected on a small biochip to find the glucose level in it.The amount of glucose present in the saliva is related to the levels in the blood.It has been found that there is positive correlation between blood glucose and salivary glucose levels.Therefore from the glucose amount in saliva,the sugar level in blood can be computed.Glucose is present in saliva in very small amounts.This biochip uses nanotechnology.So,even small concentration of glucose , as low as 0.3 micromolar can be measured using this chip.

The biosensor is made up of three parts:Nanosheet layers made of graphene, platinum nanoparticles,and the enzyme glucose oxidase. Electrodes are formed by combining the nanosheet petals and platinum nanoparticles.The glucose oxidase then attaches to the platinum nanoparticles. The glucose oxidase enzyme transforms glucose in saliva to peroxide, and a signal is sent.Reading can be noted further.

Infrared blood glucose testing

This technique is done by allowing infrared light to pass through the patient's skin.The infrared light penetrates to a small depth below the skin's surface and by measuring vibration of chemical bonds within the skin, can take the glucose levels of our interstitial fluid.

Testing tears

Like saliva,tears can also be used to find out the sugar level in blood.The glucose level in tears also has a proportional relationship with the level of glucose in our blood.

• Less expensive to produce .
• Secure and avoids any kind of germ transfer through needles.
• Not at all painful and suits for commercial use.

In future if this biochip can be incorporated into an iphone app,how amazing would it be?..lets look forward for new advancements.