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Bubles
Bubles
2023.03.22
SCIENCE

A research paper on the correlation between glycated albumin in blood, tear and saliva has been published in Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice.

World’s first demonstration that glycated albumin in blood, tear and saliva strongly correlate with each other.

Glycated albumin (GA) is an excellent biomarker for monitoring of weekly average blood glucose levels, but measurement still requires blood sampling. Blood glucose measurement via non-invasive body fluids such as saliva and tear fluid has long been expected. However, the problem with direct measurement of glucose concentration in these alternative body fluids was that the measurement results inevitably deviated from blood glucose levels.
Therefore, our research group focused on glycated albumin. GA does not directly measure blood glucose, but indirectly provides information on the average blood glucose over a week or so according to the number of glucose bound to albumin. GA that has been glycosylated in the blood seeps into tear fluid and saliva, and we hypothesised that measuring this would accurately reflects average blood glucose.
In this study, blood, tear and saliva were collected from volunteers with diabetes and GA levels in each was compared. The results showed that the GA levels in blood, tear fluid and saliva correlated extremely strongly with each other.
The research results were published in Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice.
Aihara M, Jinnouchi H, Yoshida A, et al. Evaluation of glycated albumin levels in tears and saliva as a marker in patients with diabetes mellitus [ published online ahead of print, 2023 Mar 22]. Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2023;110637. doi:10.1016/j.diabres.2023.110637
This study was funded by AMED and conducted in collaboration with the University of Tokyo Faculty of Engineering, the University of Tokyo Hospital and Jinnouchi Hospital.
The research team will continue research and development to further improve the accuracy of GA measurement methods using alternative body fluids such as saliva and tear fluid.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diabres.2023.110637

People may think of glucose monitoring as simple as this: "Diabetes is a disease of blood sugar. This is why people with diabetes use glucometer."
However, it's not that simple. Blood sugar measurement has diverse objectives, including diagnosing diabetes, dosing self-injection of insulin, avoiding hypoglycemia due to excessive drug efficacy, and behavior change.
You must choose the appropriate blood sugar measurement method for your purpose.

There are two types of self-blood glucose measurement methods: SMBG (Self-Monitoring of Blood Glucose), which is widely used, and CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitoring), which has become popular in recent years.
These two blood glucose measurement methods are designed mainly for patients who self-inject insulin and other injectable drugs.
Until now, there has been no simple and daily method for measuring blood glucose at home other than these two methods.

Some drugs, such as insulin, are very potent and can cause dangerous hypoglycemia if the dosage is incorrect.
Therefore, for example, those who use insulin must measure their blood glucose accurately before self-injection at home and carefully determine the dose.
After injection, if there are signs of hypoglycemia, it is necessary to measure blood glucose immediately. If necessary, you need to take some sugar to avoid hypoglycemia.
However, both methods have an issue with invasiveness. In addition, they cost a lot. CGM costs at least $60 and needs to be replaced every two weeks, which is also a significant economic burden. SMBG requires frequent measurements, so the total cost becomes significant when accumulated.
Unfortunately, SMBG and CGM are not suitable for everyone due to invasiveness and cost.

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