Wearable Lateral Flow Patch for Noninvasive Sweat Protein Monitoring

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Wearable Technology
• Biosensing

Background:

• Traditional protein analysis requires invasive methods, limiting in situ monitoring.
• Existing wearable sensors struggle with stable and sensitive sweat protein detection.
• Noninvasive monitoring of inflammatory factors like C-reactive protein (CRP) in sweat is needed.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a wearable sweat sensing patch (WSSP) for noninvasive, real-time detection of sweat protein biomarkers.
• To integrate sweat induction, microfluidics, and lateral flow immunoassay into a single wearable platform.
• To enable sensitive and specific detection of C-reactive protein (CRP) in sweat.

Main Methods:

• Developed a wearable sweat sensing patch (WSSP) incorporating self-heating sweat induction, microfluidics, and lateral flow immunoassay.
• Utilized smartphone-based colorimetric detection and machine learning for signal interpretation.
• Validated WSSP performance for monitoring C-reactive protein (CRP) levels at rest and during exercise.

Main Results:

• The WSSP achieved noninvasive, real-time, specific, and sensitive detection of C-reactive protein (CRP) in sweat.
• The device successfully monitored dynamic changes in sweat CRP levels before and after exercise.
• Machine learning algorithms accurately interpreted colorimetric signals for CRP quantification.

Conclusions:

• The wearable lateral flow patch represents a significant advancement in sweat protein detection.
• The WSSP platform facilitates in situ monitoring of inflammatory responses via sweat analysis.
• This technology lays the foundation for future clinical applications in wearable diagnostics.