Finger pricking to monitor blood sugar levels could be a thing of the past. An implantable device to track your blood-sugar levels round-the-clock is the future with the scientists now having developed a new glucose-sensing protein.
"It is a glucose/galactose binding protein (GBP) that changes shape when it attaches to glucose," a research by Sylvia Daunert from University of Miami in the US and colleagues showed.
The researchers engineered it in such a way that it would be stable in and out of the body for longer periods to detect levels of glucose within the range in a diabetic person.
Currently, most patients with diabetes monitor blood-sugar levels by using a glucose meter.
They prick a finger with a tiny needle to draw blood which they apply to a test strip inserted into the glucometer.
It provides a reading of the level at that moment. But glucose levels change throughout the day, so many readings are needed.
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That is not always convenient and some people find that pricking their finger is painful.
As a result, many patients do not test their blood as often as they should, risking complications such as seizures.
"For more continuous monitoring, some patients use implantable devices that measure blood-sugar as often as once a minute, but they are expensive, can only be used for up to a week and are not as reliable as conventional meters," researchers said.
They, therefore, set out to improve upon these limited options and they turned to a protein that has already been explored as a good candidate for use in a continuous glucose monitoring system.
The findings appeared in the journal ACS Chemical Biology.