A silk-microneedle patch to detect glucose in the interstitial fluid of skin or plant tissue

Glucose is critical to all organisms. Herein, we developed a wire electrode embedded microneedle patch (WEMNP) for in situ real-time detection of glucose in the interstitial fluid (ISF) of skin or plant tissues with minimal invasiveness. WEMNP is made of proline treated silk fibroin proteins, which provide good mechanical strength (0.75 N/microneedle) for tissue penetration and desirable bioelectronic interface for fast and high-fidelity detection. WEMNP shows specific and linear response to glucose between 3 – 18 mM for detection in skin ISF with a sensitivity of 21.21 nA/mM and between 30 – 180 mM for detection in plant ISF with a sensitivity of 1.22 nA/mM. Such self-administrable WEMNP could be instrumental to long-term home-based management for chronic diseases and to smart agriculturing. • Electrodes are embedded in the tips of silk-microneedle to detect glucose • Glucose is measured in situ in a minimally invasive and real-time manner in skin and plant tissues • Microneedle patch gives specific and linear response in the glucose range of 3 – 18 mM and 30 – 180 mM • Such microneedle strategy may be applied for long-term home-based management for chronic diseases and smart agriculturing