Glucose Sensing by Fluorescent Nanomaterials

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease and leading cause of death worldwide, affecting more than 420 million people. High blood glucose levels are a common effect of uncontrolled diabetes, which can cause serious health damage. Diabetic individuals must measure their blood glucose levels regularly in order to control glycemic levels and minimize the effects of the disease. Glucose sensors have been used in the management of diabetes for more than 50 years, when Clark and Ann Lyons developed the first glucose enzyme electrode in 1962. Electrochemical sensors have become the leading technology for glucose concentration measuring with most of the commercially available devices being based on amperometric detection. However, the detection of glucose in the blood is still an object of intense research. The development of new fluorescent nanomaterials begins to constitute an alternative for glucose blood quantification. These sensors include carbon dots, quantum dots, graphene quantum dots, gold, silver and upconversion nanoparticles. This paper reviews the last 10 year fluorescent nanoparticles based technologies proposed for glucose monitoring and provide an insight into emerging optical fluorescence glucose biosensors.

Keywords:

• Diabetes mellitus
• fluorescence
• glucose sensors
• nanomaterials
• optical sensing

Additional information

Funding

This work was made in the framework of the project Sustainable Advanced Materials (NORTE-01-00145-FEDER- 000028), funded by “Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER)”, through “Programa Operacional do Norte” (NORTE2020). Acknowledgment to project POCI- 01-0145-FEDER-006980, funded by FEDER through COMPETE2020, is also made. L.P. d.S. also acknowledges a post-doctoral grant funded by project Sustainable Advanced Materials (NORTE-01-00145-FEDER-000028). Project PTDC/QEQ-QAN/5955/2014 is acknowledged. These projects are cofunded by FCT/MEC (PIDDAC) and by FEDER through “COMPETE − Programa Operacional Fatores de Competitividade” (COMPETE-POFC).