ISABELLA THOBURN COLLEGE

Name: Kriti Verma

Class: B.Sc. 3rd year 6th semester
College roll no. : 217017
University roll no. : 2110384010163
Subject: spectroscopy and quantum mechanics
Submitted to: Dr Meenakshi Singh
Topic: application of infrared spectroscopy in diabetes research
Introduction
Overview of Diabetes
Diabetes is one of the most common lifelong chronic diseases in human beings. It is mainly caused by
genetic factors, immune disorders, and other factors in the human body, leading to islet function decline
and insulin resistance, etc., resulting in an imbalance of glucose levels in the body, which is manifested as
failure of glucose metabolism and hyperglycemia.
Diabetes is divided into two categories: type 1 and type 2.
Deficient secretion of insulin in the pancreas leads to diabetes type 1. Type 2, on the other hand, is
mainly due to the ineffective use of insulin caused by insulin resistance and insulin sensitivity decreasing
in patients. Diabetes has a high incidence rate, numerous complications, wide pathogenic factors,
difficulty in curing, and other serious hazards to human health. Therefore, many related fields have been
actively devoted to the research of diabetes
Role of spectroscopy in diabetes research

Spectroscopy, a powerful technique, plays a vital role in diabetes research. It enables scientists to study the
chemical composition of substances by analyzing their interaction with light. In diabetes research, spectroscopy
helps identify biomarkers, monitor glucose levels, and study medications' effects on metabolic processes. For
instance, infrared spectroscopy can analyze blood samples to detect changes in glucose concentration, aiding
diagnosis and management of diabetes. Overall, spectroscopy contributes significantly to understanding the
biochemical processes underlying diabetes and developing effective treatments.
Literature of diabetes
In the human body, glucose provides energy for cell metabolism. In addition to blood, glucose is widely
contained in intracellular fluids, interstitial fluids (ISF), tears, saliva, and urine. At present, the blood glucose
concentration is the main basis for the diagnosis of diabetes. The standard was introduced by the WHO in
2009, setting the fasting blood glucose (FBG) of normal people at 3.9–6.1 mM, and the blood glucose 2 h after
a meal at 7.8 mM or less. Patients with typical symptoms of diabetes (polyuria, polydipsia, and unexplained
weight loss) who have arbitrary blood glucose ≥ 11.1 mM, FBG ≥ 7.0 mM, or 2 h after a meal ≥ 11.1 mM, which
means diabetes can be diagnosed. Apart from hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia would damage the human body as
well. Clinically, hypoglycemia is defined as a condition where the blood glucose concentration is lower than 3.9
mM and lasts for more than 5 min, which is a common complication of insulin therapy or oral hypoglycemic
agents. For elderly patients in particular, the risk coefficient of hypoglycemia is even higher. The incidence of
hypoglycemia at night is relatively high, and it is difficult to monitor it in a timely way with traditional blood
glucose detection methods. Strict blood glucose control is also likely to increase the risk of hypoglycemia.
Therefore, continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) in diabetics may be of more clinical application value and
more in line with market trends.
The basic principle of IR spectroscopy
Infrared (IR) spectroscopy is a technique that involves the interaction of infrared radiation with matter to study
its vibrational transitions. The basic principle of infrared spectroscopy is rooted in the fact that molecules
absorb specific frequencies of infrared radiation, corresponding to the vibrational modes of their constituent
atoms. When infrared light passes through a sample, certain wavelengths are absorbed, leading to
characteristic absorption patterns that can be used to identify and analyze the molecular structure of the
sample.
The key features of infrared spectroscopy involve
o Vibrational modes
o Energy absorption
o Instrumentation
o Functional group identification
o Fingerprint region
 Methods for Monitoring Blood Glucose Concentration

According to whether the blood glucose test has caused injury to human skin, it can be simply divided into
invasive and non-invasive blood glucose monitoring.
o Invasive Blood Glucose Monitoring
At present, invasive blood glucose detection technology is mainstream, convenient, and practical, so both
hospitals and household glucometers adopt the method of blood sampling first and then analyzing it in vitro for
blood glucose measurement. In hospitals, the blood is drawn from the subjects on an empty stomach in the
morning, and the blood glucose concentration is accurately measured by the automatic biochemical analyzer.
Although the results of this method are precise and can be used as an important basis for the diagnosis of
diabetes, it is unfit for continuous monitoring of diabetics due to its tedious process, long detection time, and a
large amount of venous blood extraction.
Non-Invasive Blood Glucose Monitoring

Non-invasive blood glucose monitoring, as its name implies, refers to detecting human blood glucose without causing
damage to human tissues. There are many methods for non-invasive blood glucose detection, which can be generally divided
into optical methods, microwave methods, and electrochemical methods. Optical methods include near-infrared reflectance
spectroscopy (NIRS), polarized optical rotation, Raman spectroscopy, fluorescence, optical coherence tomography (OCT), and
so on. As shown in Figure 1, in addition to glucose in human blood, there are also considerable amounts of glucose in other
biofluids (such as saliva, tears, sweat, and ISF- intertrial fluids). Utilizing the coherent correlation between biofluids and blood
glucose value, the electrochemical method or optical method usually measures the glucose content in body fluids first. It
obtains the blood glucose value indirectly after calibrating the algorithm or data model. The range of glucose in ISF is the
closest to the range of blood glucose in both healthy and diabetic, which provides a theoretical basis for the development of
an ISF glucose sensor. However, a large number of research works have shown that there is a time-lag phenomenon between
ISF glucose and blood glucose, that is, ISF reflects the change of blood glucose level with a certain delay, which ranges from
about 4–10 min. Transdermal biofluid extraction generally adopts reverse iontophoresis (RI) technology, which can achieve
the purpose of rapid extraction of ISF.

Figure 1: Contrast of glucose concentrations in

different physiological fluids between healthy and
diabetic people.
Optical technology
Near-infrared spectroscopy
To measure glucose levels using near-infrared light, the light must be absorbed and scattered by chemicals in
the tested tissue. Near-infrared spectroscopy generally selects the areas with rich blood vessels and thin skin,
such as the tongue, lips, and earlobes for measurement. The relation between tissue-reduced scattering
coefficient to changes in blood glucose levels in diabetes volunteers is that the unabsorbed light could be
reflected from or transmitted through tissue before being received by optical detectors. When light propagates
through organs with higher glucose concentrations, it becomes stronger due to less scattering, which results in
shorter light paths and reduced light absorptions.

Figure: schematic description

of the influence of glucose
on light propagation. Near-infrared light can
Effectively penetrates body fluids and soft tissue, enabling the detection of tissue conditions.
The figure shows how glucose affects light propagation by absorbing and scattering near-infrared light. The absorption and scattering properties of glucose can be used to detect
glucose levels in biological samples using NIRS.
Working

The near-infrared spectroscopy is primarily focused on the visible and near-infrared ranges, including
wavelengths ranging from 0.59-0.95 μm, 1.21-1.85 μm, and 2.12-2.38 μm. Near-infrared light can effectively
penetrate body fluids and soft tissues, enabling the detection of tissue conditions. This approach harnesses the
frequency doubling and combined absorption of the fundamental frequency vibration of compounds that
contain X-H bond groups (X can be C, O, N, etc.) in the mid & infrared region. The spectral absorption
characteristics changed as the contents of organic compounds containing X-H bond groups and inorganic
compound samples combined with them varied. It has been shown that glucose and other tissues have specific
absorption bands in the near-infrared range. When near-infrared light penetrates human tissue, it is partially
absorbed. The concentration of blood sugar can be calculated by detecting and calibrating the near-infrared
spectrum absorption value.
Near-infrared light is a highly promising method for detecting glucose levels as it can provide real-time, non-
invasive, fast, and chemical reagent-free glucose monitoring without risk of pain or infection. Accordingly, it is
considered a promising detection method.
A. Near-infrared spectroscopy technology is a non-
invasive blood sugar monitoring technology, which
determines the content of glucose in the tissue by
analyzing the spectral signal of a beam of infrared
light passing through or reflected by human tissue.
B. Near-infrared thermal detector principle. When
near-infrared radiation is absorbed by a material, it
causes a temperature increase, which generates a
voltage output in the thermopile. The voltage
output is proportional to the intensity of the
absorbed radiation and can be used to measure the
concentration of glucose in biological samples. Both
infrared light detectors and infrared heat detectors
can be used as measuring instruments, and further
research can be carried out to produce non-invasive
detectors with higher sensitivity and stability.
References
• Non-Invasive Blood Glucose Monitoring Technology: A Review - PMC (nih.gov)
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10331674/#:~:text=Near%2Dinfrared%20spectroscopy%20technology%20
is,or%20reflected%20by%20human%20tissue
• Optical Non-Invasive Glucose Monitoring: Continuous Noninvasive
Glucose Monitoring Technology Based on “Occlusion Spectroscopy” - PMC (nih.gov)
• Noninvasive Blood Glucose Monitoring Systems Using Near-Infrared Technology—A Review - PMC (nih.gov)
THANKYOU