Engineers in the US have developed a simple device using specially designed dental floss that can easily and accurately measure cortisol, a stress hormone, in real time. Chronic stress can lead to increased blood pressure and cardiovascular disease, decreased immune function, depression, and anxiety.
“It started in a collaboration with several departments across Tufts University, examining how stress and other cognitive states affect problem solving and learning,” said Sameer Sonkusale, professor of electrical and computer engineering in the study published in the ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces journal.
“We didn’t want measurement to create an additional source of stress, so we thought, can we make a sensing device that becomes part of your day-to-day routine? Cortisol is a stress marker found in saliva, so flossing seemed like a natural fit to take a daily sample,” he added.
Their design of a saliva-sensing dental floss looks just like a common floss pick, with the string stretched across two prongs extending from a flat plastic handle, all about the size of your index finger.The saliva is picked up by capillary action through a very narrow channel in the floss.
The fluid is drawn into the pick handle and an attached tab, where it spreads across electrodes that detect the cortisol.Cortisol recognition on the electrodes is accomplished with a remarkable technology developed almost 30 years ago called electropolymerized molecularly imprinted polymers (eMIPs).
The eMIP molds are versatile, so one can create dental floss sensors that detect other molecules that can be found in saliva, such as estrogen for fertility tracking, glucose for diabetes monitoring, or markers for cancer.
There is also potential for detecting multiple biomarkers in saliva at the same time, for more accurate monitoring of stress, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and other conditions, said researchers.Accuracy of the cortisol sensors is comparable to the best-performing sensors on the market or in development.
Bringing this device into the home and in the hands of individuals without need for training will make it possible to fold stress monitoring into many aspects of health care. Currently, Sonkusale and his colleagues are creating a startup to try and bring the product to market.