Checking your body’s medication levels is usually no one’s idea of fun. Now researchers are trying to change that with Lollylab, a candy-coated, lollipop-like device that can collect saliva and measure levels of acetaminophen in under two minutes.
The prototype created by researchers whose work was published in ACS Sensors transforms a familiar object into a miniature testing device. In a pilot study, six adults ingested the peach-flavored Lollylab before and one hour after a standard 650-milligram dose of acetaminophen. The device repeatedly detected the pain reliever in their saliva, and participants reported it was more comfortable and easier to use than traditional saliva swabs.
The lollipop is actually a tiny laboratory
Lollylab might look more like a sweet shop than a medical laboratory, but there’s some serious chemistry going on in there. It consists of two plastic parts with holes for the saliva to pass through. The researchers then coated the top with a red, peach-flavoured edible candy shell that they say also helps stimulate saliva production. The saliva collected then travels down a stem lined with glass-fibre paper toward the graphene sensor at the bottom.
That sensor measures acetaminophen by sensing changes in current. The system was tested with artificial as well as human saliva.
The choice of acetaminophen is key. The widely used painkiller is in a lot of over-the-counter medicines, including pain, cold, and flu remedies. Too much can lead to serious side effects, including liver damage. A simpler way of monitoring medication levels could be useful, as kids are especially prone to accidental overdoses.
The researchers also said that concentrations of acetaminophen in saliva are a good reflection of levels in blood, and that saliva is an attractive medium for testing.
From a clever prototype to a real medical tool
The real appeal of Lollylab isn’t that it makes medical tests taste like candy. The bigger idea is point-of-care testing that doesn’t involve invasive swabs or sending samples to a lab. The researchers say the device could eventually be a more general saliva-testing platform. They plan to trial it with more participants, including children, and see if it can detect other substances, such as naturally occurring stress markers. They want one device to be able to measure several biomarkers and acetaminophen in the long run.
However, this is still an early proof-of-concept study with only six adults. It’s not a consumer medical device yet, and the researchers need to do larger studies to validate its measurements.
But the idea is refreshingly simple: instead of asking people to endure yet another clinical swab, give them something they already know how to use. If Lollylab proves successful in larger trials, measuring medication doses could become a lot less scary, especially for children.
