Wearable microneedle patch could improve drug monitoring
A wearable patch with microneedles coated in DNA molecules tracks levels of antibiotics in the body in real time.
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To improve precision drug monitoring for critical medicines such as potent antibiotics, an interdisciplinary team of KAUST researchers has designed a wearable device capable of continuously monitoring drug levels in the interstitial fluid just beneath the skin. Their platform is designed to monitor the antibiotic vancomycin, but could be adapted for other medicines, supporting more personalized dosing. [1].
The long-established method for monitoring levels of therapeutic drugs in the body relies on drawing blood and waiting several hours for laboratory results.
“A major drawback of this, besides the wait for results, is that it only offers doctors a snapshot of a highly dynamic system — every individual’s body reacts to and metabolizes drugs differently,” says doctoral student Yurii Tsyban, who worked on the project under the supervision of Khaled Nabil Salama. Certain medications have a narrow therapeutic window, meaning that small changes in drug concentration can have significant clinical consequences: a dose that is safe and effective for one patient may prove toxic or ineffective for another.
Read the full story on KAUST Discovery.
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Tsyban Yurii Olehovych
- Ph.D. Student, Bioscience