Synthesis and development of poly(N-hydroxyethyl acrylamide)-ran-3-acrylamidophenylboronic acid polymer fluid for potential application in affinity sensing of glucose.

BACKGROUND In previous work, we described viscosity and permittivity microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) sensors for continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) using poly[acrylamide-ran-3-acrylamidophenylboronic acid (PAA-ran-PAAPBA). In order to enhance our MEMS device antifouling properties, a novel, more hydrophilic polymer-sensing fluid was developed. METHOD To optimize sensing performance, we synthesized biocompatible copolymers poly(N-hydroxyethyl acrylamide)-ran-3-acrylamidophenylboronic acid (PHEAA-ran-PAAPBA) and developed its sensing fluid for viscosity-based glucose sensing. Key factors such as polymer composition and molecular weight were investigated in order to optimize viscometric responses. RESULTS Compared with PAA-ran-PAAPBA fluid of a similar binding moiety percentage, PHEAA-ran-PAAPBA showed comparable high binding specificity to glucose in a reversible manner and even better performance in glucose sensing in terms of glucose sensing range (27-468 mg/ml) and sensitivity (within 3% standard error of estimate). Preliminary experiment on a MEMS viscometer demonstrated that the polymer fluid was able to sense the glucose concentration. CONCLUSIONS Our MEMS systems using PHEAA-ran-PAAPBA will possess enhanced implantable traits necessary to enable CGM in subcutaneous tissues.