Fructosamine measurement in blood is becoming increasingly useful in monitoring the effectiveness of therapy in diabetes. Fructosamine levels reflect the average blood sugar concentration over the past two to three weeks. Used in conjunction with blood glucose, glycated hemoglobin HbA1c, or by itself the fructosamine assay provides clinically useful information for the detection and control of diabetes. There is no simple whole blood test for fructosamine available for """"""""on-site"""""""" testing. Currently, fructosamine can only be measured in serum in clinical laboratory environments by non-enzymatic reactions with Nitro blue tetrazolium (NBT) at pH 10.35. This proposal, an enzymatic approach to fructosamine measurement, is made possible by GDS Technology's recent discovery of an organism which shows dehydrogenase activity. The enzyme uses fructosamine as a substrate in presence of NBT, at pH 7.0-8.0 and produces color. Because of its enzymatic nature, the method will offer several advantages such as specificity, accuracy, quick results and can be converted easily to dry-chemistry strips for """"""""on-site"""""""" testing. Phase I will focus on purification, characterization and determination of this enzyme's suitability for the dry-chemistry test. Phase II will involve the development of the whole blood strip test.
