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A pacifier that checks baby’s blood sugar

By on November 25, 2019

A high-tech pacifier that checks blood sugar levels with saliva has been developed as a result of a study co-authored by Juliane R. Sempionatto a doctoral candidate at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).

When baby sucks the sugar-sensing pacifier, the sugar concentration in saliva collected  (glucose) is measured and sent wirelessly in real time to a receiver that a parent or caregiver can monitor.  The details of the study were published in the online edition of the American Chemical Society (ACS) journal “Analytical Chemistry” on October 1.

*image only, not the actual device.

Similar to standard blood sugar meters, “The device gave us good correlation with the blood glucose when tested in adults. We were able to tell when their blood glucose was high with great accuracy,” Sempionatto said.

Current blood sugar levels help decide how much insulin a diabetic needs. Insulin is a hormone that helps cause the sugar from foods into the body’s cells to be used as fuel. Without enough insulin, the sugar stays in the blood, where it can cause short- and long-term damage. Getting the proper amount of insulin is crucial because even too much or too little can cause problems.

Despite the encouraging trial results, there are still some challenges to market the patented device as a product. The prototype is about 3.6cm long.  Sempionatto says, “I tried to make it as small as possible so that babies can not feel the difference from regular pacifiers and reject it.”

One of the challenges is that the device is composed of small parts. If these parts come off and an infant swallows them, it may cause suffocation. To address the choking hazard, “all parts need to be packaged in a single container,” says Sempionatto.

Another problem is the effect on the measurement results when there is food residue in the infant’s mouth. Because of this concern, a proof-of-concept study was conducted where researchers had adults with type 1 diabetes use the pacifier before and after a meal. The initial tests showed that the device can, in fact, measure changes in saliva sugar levels that corresponded to changes in blood sugar levels. “For infants, it’s quite different,” says Sempionatto.  Babies often spit out milk that can affect the results in measuring the milk left in the baby’s mouth.

Although there are still unresolved hurdles, researchers have a lot of expectations for this device. Sanjoy Dutta of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) says the new technology is “very innovative”.  He said that he’s seen testing through tears, breath, saliva and even a tattoo, but so far nothing has proved as accurate as blood sugar monitoring. He added too that continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) — tiny sensors inserted underneath the skin that provide blood sugar readings every few minutes — “has set the bar higher.” 

Unlike a blood glucose meter (BGM), which provides just a single glucose reading, CGM systems can provide real-time, dynamic glucose information every five minutes — up to 288 readings in a 24-hour period. Using a blood glucose meter however involves inserting a test strip into the device and then pricking a clean fingertip with a lancet (special needle) to extract a tiny amount of blood.

Sempionatto agrees that type 1 diabetes patients should be monitored with CGM. The idea of ​​using a pacifier she says, is to “have a truly non-invasive” option for measuring babies’ sugar.  She further explains that some tiny sensors, needles, and devices are too big for newborns and can hurt them. “Pacifiers don’t have to be worn on the infant ’s body,” she stresses.

 

SOURCES: Juliane Sempionatto, Ph.D. candidate, department of nano engineering, University of California, San Diego; Sanjoy Dutta, Ph.D., vice president of research, JDRF, New York City; Oct. 23, 2019, Analytical Chemistry

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