Sweat monitoring and control of drug delivery

Abstract

The concentration of an administered compound, such as a drug (D), in an organ or a bodily fluid, such as blood, is determined directly through detecting the drug (D) or its metabolites (DM) in sweat. The concentration may be determined indirectly by administering the drug (D) together with one or more tracer compounds (T, T2) or metabolites thereof (TM, T2M) or by detecting concentrations and trends of other analytes present in the body that react to the presence of the drug (D). By determining tracer concentration in sweat, the concentration of the drug (D) in blood or an organ can be determined. The tracer (T, T2) is a compound selected for ease of detection in sweat, known metabolic and solubility profiles that correspond to those of the drug (D), and safety of use. A smart transdermal delivery patch (300) is used to administer a dosage of drug to a wearer in coordination with at least one sweat sensor (324) reading conveying information about the wearer.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15 / 314,414 entitled “SWEAT MONITORING AND CONTROL OF DRUG DELIVERY”, filed Nov. 28, 2016, which is the U.S. National phase application of PCT Application No. PCT / US2015 / 032866, entitled “SWEAT MONITORING AND CONTROL OF DRUG DELIVERY”, filed May 28, 2015, and claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Applications No. 62 / 003,699 entitled “SWEAT MONITORING OF PRODUCT DELIVERY AND DOSAGE”, filed May 28, 2014, No. 62 / 023,233 entitled “SWEAT SENSOR WITH CHRONOLOGICAL ASSURANCE”, filed Jul. 11, 2014, and No. 62 / 092,897 entitled “SWEAT MONITORING OF PRODUCT DELIVERY AND DOSAGE”, filed Dec. 17, 2014, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Sweat sensing technologies have enormous potential for applications ranging from athletics, to neonates, to pharmacological monitoring, to personal digital health, to ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent describes a method to detect the concentration of a drug in a person's body by giving them a known amount of a tracer compound that is easily detectable in sweat. The drug and its metabolites are then monitored in sweat to see if they are correlated with the presence of the drug in the body. This allows for continuous control of the drug delivery through a smart transdermal device. The technical effect is a more accurate and efficient way to measure drug delivery in the body.

Problems solved by technology

This process is so labor intensive, complicated, and costly that in most cases, one would just as well implement a blood draw since it is the gold standard for most forms of high performance biomarker sensing.

Hence, sweat sensing has not emerged into its fullest opportunity and capability for biosensing, especially for continuous or repeated biosensing or monitoring.

Furthermore, attempts at using sweat to sense “holy grails” such as glucose have not yet succeeded to produce viable commercial products, reducing the publicly perceived capability and opportunity space for sweat sensing.

Sweat is also exposed to numerous contamination sources, which can distort the effective sampling rate.

The variable sampling rate creates a challenge in providing chronological assurance, especially so in continuous monitoring applications.

Detection of drug compounds, particularly a concentration over time in bodily fluids, is complex and difficult.

Continuous detection and monitoring by blood draw is undesirable.

Saliva is inconvenient and prone to contamination.

Tears are also difficult to access regularly and ergonomically.

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