Biosensors: Monitoring Human Health for the SDGs Sustainable Development Goals
Journal Title: Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research (BJSTR) - Year 2018, Vol 9, Issue 2
Abstract
Due to global warming, our life is gradually getting worse. There are various problems such as lack of food and depletion of living environment. On the other hand, especially in the developed countries, people with excessive calorie intake and lack of exercise become lifestyle disease. Under these circumstances, it will be difficult for us to live healthily. To improve this situation, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were set by the United Nations. This mini review focuses on biosensor as a tool to monitor the human health conditions towards achieving the SDGs. A biosensor was developed by the fusion of biology and electronics, and constructed by a biorecognition element and a transducer, it has been widely used as a simple, analyte specific, rapid, low-cost, and energy saving measuring device in the field of the clinical, food and environmental analyses [1]. The first biosensor was developed employing glucose oxidase and a dissolved oxygen electrode for blood glucose monitoring by Updike and Hicks in 1967 [2] . Since, the development of the biosensors has been widespread worldwide and some of them have been commercially availble [3] . On the other hand, the United Nations adopted "Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda)" and set the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) consisting of 17 global goals in 2015 [4]. The 1st goal and the 2nd goal of the SDGs are "No Poverty" and "Zero Hunger", respectively. In fact, future food and nutritional security has become a major concern for both rich and poor, given the present concurrence of rising human population, climate change and changing consumption habits [5]. The nutrition of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, and fiber is required to maintain healthy life. However, it is known that people's nutrition sources are more likely to bias to carbohydrates in countries and regions where food is scarce, or even in developed countries, the situation will be similar depending on living standards. In such cases, people become susceptible to diabetes. On the contrary, people with excessive calorie intake and lack of exercise naturally become susceptible to diabetes. In the report by World Health Organization (WHO), the number of people with diabetes has risen from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014 [6]. WHO projects that diabetes will be the seventh leading cause of death in 2030 [6,7]. However, in the 3rd goal of the SDGs, "Good Health and Well-Being for People" is set. To realize the 3rd goal, such forecast of the diabetes population by WHO needs to be avoided by our efforts. As one of its efforts, the biosensor to monitor blood glucose level can be expected. Various types of blood glucose biosensors have been developed for practical use to date. There is a selfmonitoring blood glucose (SMBG) biosensor as the most popular one. Early SMBG biosensor (although it is still used today) is finger-prick type and consists of a portable measuring device and a disposable biosensor chip [1]. For the chip design, we had many ideas to reduce manufacturing cost, and sample volume, etc. (over 30 patents applied to PCT) and developed several types of the disposable biosensor chip, for examples, low costs and precise sensor manufacturing [8], a minimally invasive sensor chip [9,10], and a package-free transparent biosensor chip [11,12]. As subsequent development of the SMBG biosensor, we developed several types of needle integrated biosensors [13,14], then we also developed a self-sterilizing lancet to integrate into the biosensor chip [15].
Authors and Affiliations
Hideaki Nakamura
Keywords
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- EP ID EP586747
- DOI 10.26717/BJSTR.2018.09.001761
- Views 164
- Downloads 0
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