Wearable Sweat Band for Noninvasive Levodopa Monitoring

• Published in: Nano letters Vol. 19; no. 9; pp. 6346 - 6351
• Main Authors: Tai, Li-Chia, Liaw, Tiffany S, Lin, Yuanjing, Nyein, Hnin Y. Y, Bariya, Mallika, Ji, Wenbo, Hettick, Mark, Zhao, Chunsong, Zhao, Jiangqi, Hou, Lei, Yuan, Zhen, Fan, Zhiyong, Javey, Ali
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 11.09.2019
• Subjects: dosage optimization; Drug Monitoring - instrumentation; Female; Humans; Levodopa - administration & dosage; Levodopa - pharmacokinetics; levodopa detection; noninvasive drug monitoring; OTHER INSTRUMENTATION; Parkinson Disease - drug therapy; Parkinson Disease - metabolism; Parkinson’s disease; Sweat - metabolism; Wearable Electronic Devices; wearable sweat sensor; Wearable sweat sensor; dosage optimization; noninvasive drug monitoring; levodopa detection; Parkinson’s disease
• ISSN: 1530-6984; 1530-6992; 1530-6992
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b02478

Levodopa is the standard medication clinically prescribed to patients afflicted with Parkinson’s disease. In particular, the monitoring and optimization of levodopa dosage are critical to mitigate the onset of undesired fluctuations in the patients’ physical and emotional conditions such as speech function, motor behavior, and mood stability. The traditional approach to optimize levodopa dosage involves evaluating the subjects’ motor function, which has many shortcomings due to its subjective and limited quantifiable nature. Here, we present a wearable sweat band on a nanodendritic platform that quantitatively monitors levodopa dynamics in the body. Both stationary iontophoretic induction and physical exercise are utilized as our methods of sweat extraction. The sweat band measures real-time pharmacokinetic profiles of levodopa to track the dynamic response of the drug metabolism. We demonstrated the sweat band’s functionalities on multiple subjects with implications toward the systematic administering of levodopa and routine management of Parkinson’s disease.