Development of a wearable patch forglucosemonitoring and insulin delivery / Nurfarrahain Nadia Ahmad

Nurfarrahain Nadia , Ahmad (2024) Development of a wearable patch forglucosemonitoring and insulin delivery / Nurfarrahain Nadia Ahmad. PhD thesis, Universiti Malaya.

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Abstract

The development of a closed-loop artificial pancreas system that mimics the function of the real human pancreas has greatly improved the quality of life for those living with diabetes. Here, the development of disposable components of the artificial pancreas device, which consist of a ninja spinning blade’s like microneedles (MNs) array, a finger powered-extraction tool for sensing with diodicity-enhancing components, and a bioinspired patch, are presented. The mechanical-fluid dynamics and structural strength of each component are studied through analytical, simulation, and experimental methods. The microneedles with grooves reduce the interaction contact during the insertion process, resulting in a 50% reduction in the insertion force required compared to the non-grooved ones. Dual release patterns (bolus-basal therapy) are achieved through the combination of spontaneous capillary flow in the outer grooves for instant delivery and the dissolution of stimuli-responsive nanocarriers from their microneedles' bodies for sustained delivery. A minimal vortex formation is achieved by optimizing bore design for extraction and diagnosis purposes. Both designs demonstrated von Mises stress lesser than their material strength, making them robust enough for insertion without fracture. For the extraction tool, the output pressure became uniform after 20 seconds of duty cycles and the flow rate remained at nearly constant levels of 2.2 μL/min. When the serpentine microchannel and hydrogel-assisted reservoir are added to the microfluidic system integration, the diodicity increases by 34% (Di = 1.96) compared to the Tesla integration (Di = 1.45) used alone. There are no signs of backflow based on an experimental visual and weighing analysis. A tree frog pad embedded with the protuberances of the vulgaris octopus design of adhesive patch provides a robust adhesion system under various environmental conditions (dry, moist, under water, and under oil), against various substrate roughness, lesser compressive preloading force, withstand attachment up to 24 hours, and no significant deterioration under multi-attachment-detachment cycles. The designed bioinspired patch reached 57.3 kPa – 116.4 kPa of normal adhesion strength and 29.8 kPa – 93.47 kPa of shear adhesion strength. These results imply that our design may pave the way for developing conformal wearable artificial pancreas devices for daily use without compromising their lifestyle routines.

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