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The purpose of this study was to design a paper strip-based non-invasive urine analysis system for the qualitative detection of biomarker aquaporin-1 (AQP1) in renal cancer (RC). RC accounts for 3% of all cancers and 85% of all kidney tumors and mainly originates from the kidney cortex. In recent times, higher urine concentration of AQP1 in patients with RC was confirmed as a specific biomarker of the disease. Hence, the noninvasive, user-friendly and self-diagnostic method is required for the detection of aquaporin biomarkers in RC.

The present research work was focused on the development and characterization of a dye conjugated cyclodextrin-based miniaturized system for impregnation on Whatman filter paper to identify RC using AQP1 biomarker present in urine samples.

It was observed that the test strip dipped into the urine sample, and the yellow color intensity increased with a decrease in AQP1 concentration due to the transformation of the dye system of free basic form into bound acidic form. The Hue-Saturation-Value profiling was used to observe the effect of color change using a smartphone application. The paper strip-based urine analysis system is highly sensitive for the detection of AQP1 in the range of 10 to 1,000 ng.

The successful validation indicated that this biosensor is likely to contribute to the development of point-of-care, novel, personalized diagnostics and ensure prolonged survival of RC patients in the near future.

The present study aims to summarize different non-invasive techniques for continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) in diabetic patients using glucose-oxidase biosensors. In diabetic patients, the self-monitoring of blood glucose (BG) levels through minimally invasive techniques provides a quick method of measuring their BG concentration, unlike conventional laboratory measurements. The drawbacks of minimally invasive techniques include physical pain, anxiety and reduced patient compliance. To overcome these limitations, researchers shifted their attention towards the development of a pain-free and non-invasive glucose monitoring system, which showed encouraging results.

This study reviews the development of minimally and non-invasive method for continuous glucose level monitoring in diabetic or hyperglycemic patients. Specifically, glucose monitoring using non-invasive techniques, such as spectroscopy-based methods, polarimetry, fluorescence, electromagnetic variations, transdermal extraction-based methods and using body fluids, has been discussed. The various strategies adopted for improving the overall specificity and performance of biosensors are discussed.

In conclusion, the technology of glucose oxidase-based biosensors for glucose level monitoring is becoming a strong competitor, probably because of high specificity and selectivity, low cost and increased patient compliance. Many industries currently working in this field include Google, Novartis and Microsoft, which demonstrates the significance and strong market potential of self-monitored glucose-oxidase-based biosensors in the near future.

This review paper summarizes comprehensive strategies for continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) in diabetic patients using non-invasive glucose-oxidase biosensors. Non-invasive techniques received significant research interest because of high sensitivity and better patient compliance, unlike invasive ones. Although the results from these innovative devices require frequent calibration against direct BG data, they might be a preferable candidate for future CGM. However, the challenges associated with designing accurate level sensors to biomonitor BG data easily and painlessly needs to be addressed.