Wearable Microneedle Biosensor for Real-Time I-Situ Antibiotic Monitoring

Abstract

Current methods for therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) have a long turnaround time as they involve collecting patients' blood samples followed by transferring the samples to localized medical laboratories where sample processing and analysis are performed. To enable real-time and minimally invasive TDM, we have developed a microneedle (MN) biosensor to monitor the levels of two important antibiotics, vancomycin (VAN) and gentamicin (GEN). The MN biosensor is composed of a hydrogel MN (HMN), and an aptamer-functionalized flexible (Flex) electrode, named HMN-Flex. The HMN extracts dermal interstitial fluid (ISF) and transfers it to the Flex electrode where sensing of the target antibiotics happens. The HMN-Flex performance has been validated in-vitro using skin models as well as in-vivo in live rat animal models. Furthermore, we leveraged data from the HMN-Flex system to construct pharmacokinetic profiles for VAN and GEN and compared these profiles with conventional blood-based measurements.