Fluorescent Glucose Sensors from Polyion Microshells

描述（由申请人提供）：非侵入性葡萄糖监测是减少采血痛苦的理想方法，这是改善糖尿病患者血糖控制的重要一步。 控制不佳会导致虚弱的并发症，但与测试相关的麻烦通常会导致患者对推荐监测频率的依从性较低。可以经皮监测的可植入荧光传感器的概念将是一个有吸引力的解决方案的问题，但许多障碍，实际使用已经确定。这项工作的目的是使用微胶囊来克服以前提出的系统的缺点。在过去的几年中，已经开发了用于制造这些结构的方法，对机械和化学性质进行精确控制，因此，可以对结构进行“调整”以适应不同的应用。最近的工作已经产生了关于这些纳米结构胶囊的性质的基础知识，但很少有实际应用的报道。由于尚未进行生物医学应用，因此尚未开展工作来评估所用材料的生物相容性。一个跨学科的研究小组将评估微胶囊作为荧光传感化学载体的潜力，使用综合方法进行传感器设计，考虑材料，化学，光学和生物学特性。这项工作将澄清有关封装过程的基本问题，然后使用这些数据来设计具有临床相关响应特性的传感器特性。随着时间的推移，将在越来越多的生理条件下评估结构的稳定性，并确定克服结垢和酶降解问题的方法，以继续取得进展。最后，将在体外和体内从分子到器械水平研究所用材料的生物相容性，以确定基线宿主反应和器械失效的风险因素。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Non-invasive glucose monitoring is desired to reduce the pain of blood sampling, which is an important step toward improved control of blood glucose for diabetics. Poor control results in debilitating complications, but the bother associated with testing typically leads to low patient compliance with recommended monitoring frequencies. The concept of implantable fluorescent sensors that can be monitored transdermally would be an attractive solution to the problem, but many obstacles to practical use have been identified. This work aims to use polyelectrolyte microcapsules to overcome drawbacks of previously proposed systems. Methods for fabricating these structures have been developed over the past few years, with precision control over mechanical and chemical properties, thus, "tuning" of the structures to fit different applications may be possible. Recent work has produced fundamental knowledge on the properties of these nanostructured capsules, yet there has been little reported by way of practical application. Since biomedical applications have not been pursued, no work has been done to assess the biocompatibility of the materials used. An interdisciplinary research team will evaluate the potential for polyelectrolyte microcapsules to function as carriers for fluorescence sensing chemistry using an integrative approach to sensor design that considers material, chemical, optical, and biological properties. The work will clarify basic questions regarding the process of encapsulation, then use these data to engineer sensor properties that will possess clinically relevant response characteristics. The stability of the structures will be assessed over time in increasingly physiological conditions, and methods to overcome problems with fouling and enzyme degradation will be identified to allow progress to continue. Finally, the biocompatibility of the materials used will be studied from molecule to device level, in vitro and in vivo, to determine baseline host response and risk factors for device failure.