Glucose biosensors for Diabetes Mellitus management

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is one of the common endocrine disorder of the recent times with increasing mortality and morbidity worldwide. Blood glucose monitoring is one of the essential methods of management of Diabetes Mellitus. The use of biosensors in blood glucose monitoring is now becoming one of the essential tools. The development and improvement of devices such as continuous glucose monitoring and non-invasive glucose monitoring system has led to the ease of blood glucose monitoring. The three main components of the device include the biological recognition element, transducer and a signal processing system. Currently most of the glucose biosensors are of the electrochemical type which has better sensitivity and better reproducibility. The glucose measurement is mostly based on the interaction with one of the three enzymes, glucose oxidase (GOx), hexokinase and glucose-1-dehydrogenase (GDH) and the product is quantified by the processing system. Self-assessment through glucose biosensors is becoming cost effective with increasing patient compliance as it is decreasing the need for expensive laboratory tests. Moreover, the evolution Saliva Glucose Biosensors where blood glucose can be easily recorded through smartphones are now in trending. The major challenges are maintaining the precision and accuracy of the biosensors, standardization, continuous assessment and training of the lay users.