Development of boronic acid grafted random copolymer sensing fluid for continuous glucose monitoring.

We have previously presented a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) based viscometric sensor for continuous glucose monitoring using protein Concanavalin A (Con A). To address its drawbacks, including immunotoxicity and instability issues, we have synthesized stable, biocompatible copolymers poly(acrylamide-ran-3-acrylamidophenylboronic acid) (PAA-ran-PAAPBA) for viscosity based glucose sensing. We found that PAA-ran-PAAPBA showed very high binding specificity to glucose. Several key factors such as polymer compositions, polymer molecular weights and polymer concentrations have been investigated to optimize viscometric responses. This polymer is able to detect glucose under physiological pH conditions in a reversible manner. Therefore, it has the potential to enable a highly reliable, continuous monitoring of glucose in subcutaneous tissue using the MEMS device.