They develop mobile sensor that detects glucose in tears in diabetes

Researchers at the Jaume I University of Castelló (UJI) have begun to design an optical sensor with nanoparticles, integrable in the chamber of smart mobile phones, to detect the level of glucose in the tear of people with diabetes.

The Nanotears project is led by the Optical Research Group (GOC) in collaboration with the Ophthalmology Service of the General University Hospital of Castelló and the BQ telephone company.

This is the first UJI initiative that receives a help Marie Skłodowska-Curie of the individual scholarship modality of the European Horizon 2020 program, of the European Union.

The main objective of Nanotears is to manufacture nanoparticles with laser technology based on the nanometric rupture of the desired material by using a pulsed laser.One of the key points of this method is that it does not generate waste during production, which characterizes it for being sustainable and environmentally respectful.

Specifically, the GOC -project researcher and coordinator of this project, Gladys Mínguez, comments that in the laboratories of the UJI Higher School of Technology and Experimental Sciences, “Quantum Carbon Points are synthesized, that is, carbon nanoparticles less than 10NM - a 10,000 times smaller than the size of a hair - that are characterized by low toxicity, being photoluminescent and photostable ».

a pocket laboratory for diabetes

«We want to develop a non -invasive, compact and integrated diagnostic device in the chamber of a smartphone, which will act as a small pocket laboratory with which the concentration of glucose in tear will be measured in a simple way and we trust that in the future it allows to facilitateThe control of diabetes, ”says the Physics teacher.However, during the development of this project "we are going to carry out the preliminary work for the design of the technology necessary to create this innovative glucose meter in tear through light," he adds.The main researcher of the Nanotears project and director of Groc, Jesús Lancis, also vice -rector of research and doctorate, says: «The high purity of the surface of the nanomaterials generated by laser ablation must be the key to its chemical modification in the development ofNanotears action that will allow advance in the monitoring of diabetic patients by telemedicine ».Lancis recalls that photonic technologies and devices based on the use of light, as shown by this project funded by the European Commission, “play an increasingly significant role in resolving the challenges facing current society such as theEnergy generation, energy efficiency, healthy aging, climate change or population safety ».

For his part, the postdoctoral researcher who will be hired in the UJI with the Marie Curie subsidy to develop Nanotears, Wycliffe Kiprop Kipnusu, considers a challenge in his career «to move towards new borders of science, such as the manufacture assisted by laserglucose, research in the medical field and current mobile technologies ».Kiprop also wants the project to have a positive result, since "this would mean a significant change in the fight against diabetes worldwide."The Ophthalmology Service of the General University Hospital of Castelló will be in charge of supervising the activity of Nanotears linked to obtaining samples of patients with diabetes, both tear and blood, to develop the new measurement tool, correlate the values ​​obtained fromThe tear glucose with those of a conventional glucometer, in addition to establishing the protocols for ethics and data protection of theinvestigation.

Dr. Elena Sorlí is responsible for this line of work and points out that, currently, the mechanism for glucose control used by the diabetic patient at home is by digital puncture with a lancet and measurement with a glucometer.It is usually done two or three times a day, with the consequent discomfort and risk of infection.Therefore, Nanotears intends to develop an alternative glucose determination system, in tear, reliable and non -invasive.To initiate the sensor design, «an adequate system of prayer collection of the patient will be fundamental.It will be carried out by a capillary of 20 microliters carefully positioned in the tear meniscus and avoiding both the conjunctival stimulation and the reflex tear secretion, which could modify the characteristics of the sample, ”explains the ophthalmologist.Next, the samples will be transferred to the Department of Physics of the University Jaume I, where “we will contact tears with the functionalized quantum points and we will apply a blue laser or LED light to the sample.This will emit a fluorescence signal and calibrating it we will calculate the amount of glucose and develop the optical sensor that, later, will be incorporated into the mobile chamber.From this device, glucose changes can be detected simple and quickly through simple fluorescent signal intensity changes, ”says GROC members.

Integration into the mobile

For his part, the founder of BQ, Ravin Dhalani, and Nanotears supervisor in R&D laboratories in image technology that the company has in Madrid, argues that glucose sensors adapted to mobile technology "will facilitate accessTo the detection of diabetes in higher population segments in developing countries, thanks both to the increase in processing power in mobile phones and the possibilities to be used in large geographical areas, in contrast to sophisticated equipment that concentratesin a limited number of countries ».In fact, «the one known as Mhealth, that is, the practice of medicine supported by mobile devices, is having a great boom in recent decades and the participation of BQ in this project shows our commitment to advance in this direction and byImprove the quality of life of diabetic people, ”concludes Dhalani.

Diabetes is a chronic disease that appears when the pancreas does not produce sufficient insulin or when the body does not effectively use the insulin it produces.There are 422 million diabetic people in the world, according to 2016 figures from the World Health Organization (WHO), that is, it affects 8.5% of the adult population, and was responsible for 1.2 million deaths in deaths inThe year 2012. The prevalence of diabetes in Spain is 10.6% of men and 8.2% of women.The possible complications of this disease include effects at the heart, neurological, renal, ocular, peripheral vascular and fetal risk in pregnant women."It is essential good control of risk factors, an early diagnosis of the disease and adequate therapeutic management of it in order to try to control the severe consequences of this pathology," insists the sorlí ophthalmologist.

The manipulation of the light focuses the various lines of work of the Optical Research Group (Groc) of the Jaume I University, directed by Jesús Lancis.Its members are experts in algorithms design for digital light control through programmable devices.The application of this technology has allowed them to patent, together with researchers from the University of Murcia, a procedure for visualization of the retina in people affected by cataracts, thusHow to collaborate in the manufacture of fluids with suspension nanoparticles to improve the heat absorption and transmission properties of conventional thermal fluids.