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Abstract(s)
The skin interstitial fluid (ISF) contains biomarkers
that complement other biofluids such as blood, sweat, saliva, and
urine. It can be sampled in a minimally invasive manner and used
either for point of care testing or real time, continuous monitoring
of analytes, the latter using microneedle arrays. The analytes
present in the skin ISF are indicative of both systemic and local
(i.e., skin) physiology. In this paper, we describe combining
microneedle technology with molecularly imprinted polymers to
demonstrate the potential of transdermal electrochemical sensing.
The molecularly imprinted polymer employed here is easy to
produce; it can be thought of as plastic antibody. Its synthesis is
scalable, and the resulting sensor has a short measurement time (6
min), with high accuracy and a low limit of detection. It provides the requisite specificity to detect the proinflammatory cytokine IL6. IL-6 is present in the skin ISF with other cytokines and is implicated in many clinical states including neurodegenerative diseases
and fatal pneumonia from SARSCoV 2. The ability to mass produce microneedle arrays and plastic antibodies will allow for low-cost
transdermal sensing devices. The transdermal sensors were able to detect IL-6 at concentrations as low as 1 pg/mL in artificial skin
ISF, indicating its utility for routine point of care, bloodless measurements in simpler settings, worldwide.
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Publisher
ACS