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Developed by biomedical engineers at the University of Southern California, the Lollylab is designed to check paracetamol levels in a user’s saliva. The smart sweet could be particularly useful for children, who can be at risk of an unintentional overdose at low levels of the common medicine. Taking more than the maximum recommended dose can cause serious side effects, such as liver damage.
The team was inspired by the saliva sampling system CandyCollect, a lollipop-like device meant to replace throat swabs, said researcher Maral Mousavi. Those specimens needed to be analysed elsewhere, however, which the team wanted to avoid.
In the new work, the researchers wanted to create a miniature laboratory-on-a-lollipop. “By turning a familiar object like a lollipop into both a saliva collection device and a sensor, Lollylab can collect the sample and perform the measurement directly at the point of care,” said Sina Khazaee Nejad, first author of a paper on the work.
Lollylab is built from two plastic pieces, each with a round end and a thinner stem. The two are snapped together, with holes at the top for saliva to enter through. The team coated the top of the device with a red, peach-flavoured edible candy shell, which they said stimulates saliva production but does not interfere with measurements.
After a few licks from a patient, saliva flows through the glass fibre paper-lined lollipop stem towards a graphene sensor at the bottom, which measures paracetamol levels as changes in electrical current. The prototype device detected paracetamol in both artificial and human saliva.
As proof of concept, six adults used Lollylab both before and an hour after taking a standard US adult dose of paracetamol (650 milligrams). The device reliably measured the drug in the participants’ saliva in less than two minutes, according to a research announcement from the American Chemical Society. Patients reportedly said it was easy to use and more comfortable than typical saliva swabs.
“The main takeaway is that diagnostic testing can be made much easier and more comfortable, especially for children,” Nejad said.
The researchers now plan to validate Lollylab’s paracetamol measurements with more participants, including children, and develop it to detect other substances such as naturally occurring stress markers. “Our longer-term goal is to create a multi-assay platform capable of measuring several biomarkers, which could then be evaluated alongside acetaminophen in larger clinical studies,” Nejad said, using the American name for the medication.
The team received funding from the 3M Nontenured Faculty Award, Women in Science and Engineering at the University of Southern California and the President’s Sustainability Research Award. Some of the team have filed a provisional patent based on the device.
The work was published in ACS Sensors.
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