Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Dec 4;20(23):6926.
doi: 10.3390/s20236926.

Biosensors for the Detection of Bacterial and Viral Clinical Pathogens

Luis Castillo-Henríquez  1   2 , Mariana Brenes-Acuña  3 , Arianna Castro-Rojas  3 , Rolando Cordero-Salmerón  3 , Mary Lopretti-Correa  4 , José Roberto Vega-Baudrit  1   3
Affiliations
Review

Biosensors for the Detection of Bacterial and Viral Clinical Pathogens

Luis Castillo-Henríquez et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

Biosensors are measurement devices that can sense several biomolecules, and are widely used for the detection of relevant clinical pathogens such as bacteria and viruses, showing outstanding results. Because of the latent existing risk of facing another pandemic like the one we are living through due to COVID-19, researchers are constantly looking forward to developing new technologies for diagnosis and treatment of infections caused by different bacteria and viruses. Regarding that, nanotechnology has improved biosensors' design and performance through the development of materials and nanoparticles that enhance their affinity, selectivity, and efficacy in detecting these pathogens, such as employing nanoparticles, graphene quantum dots, and electrospun nanofibers. Therefore, this work aims to present a comprehensive review that exposes how biosensors work in terms of bacterial and viral detection, and the nanotechnological features that are contributing to achieving a faster yet still efficient COVID-19 diagnosis at the point-of-care.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; bacterial detection; biosensors; clinical pathogen; electrospun nanofibers; nano-biosensors; point-of-care; viral detection.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Biosensor’s basic design. Reprinted with permission from Huang, Y. et al. Disease-Related Detection with Electrochemical Biosensors: A Review. Sensors 17(10). Copyright (2017) MDPI [46].
Figure 2
Figure 2
Different nanomaterials and nanostructures used for the development of nano-biosensors. Reprinted with permission from Pirzada, M. et al. Nanomaterials for Healthcare Biosensing Applications. Sensors 19(23): 5311. Copyright (2019) MDPI [95].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Point-of-care (POC) for COVID-19. Reprinted with permission from Choi, J. et al. Development of Point-of-Care Biosensors for COVID-19. Front Chem 8: 517. Copyright (2019) Frontiers in Chemistry [214].
Figure 4
Figure 4
COVID-19 rapid serological IgM/IgG test. Reprinted with permission from Ghaffari, A. et al. COVID-19 Serological Test: How Well Do They Actually Perform? Diagnostics 10(7): 453. Copyright (2020) MDPI [221].
Figure 5
Figure 5
Schematic diagram of COVID-19 FET sensor operation procedure. Reprinted with permission from Seo, G. et al. Rapid Detection of COVID-19 Causative Virus (SARS-CoV-2) in Human Nasopharyngeal Swab Specimens Using Field-Effect Transistor-Based Biosensor. ACS Nano 14(4): 5135–5142. Copyright (2020) ACS [231].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Clark L.C., Lyons C. Electrode Systems for Continuous Monitoring in Cardiovascular Surgery. Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 1962;102:29–45. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1962.tb13623.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Solaimuthu A., Vijayan A.N., Murali P., Korrapati P.S. Nano-biosensors and their relevance in tissue engineering. Curr. Opin. Biomed. Eng. 2020;13:84–93. doi: 10.1016/j.cobme.2019.12.005. - DOI
    1. Metkar S.K., Girigoswami K. Diagnostic biosensors in medicine—A review. Biocatal. Agric. Biotechnol. 2019;17:271–283. doi: 10.1016/j.bcab.2018.11.029. - DOI
    1. Lakshmipriya T., Gopinath S.C.B. 1—An Introduction to Biosensors and Biomolecules. In: Gopinath S.C.B., Lakshmipriya T., editors. Nanobiosensors for Biomolecular Targeting. Elsevier; Amsterdam, The Netherlands: 2019. pp. 1–21. - DOI
    1. Scholten K., Meng E. A review of implantable biosensors for closed-loop glucose control and other drug delivery applications. Int. J. Pharm. 2018;544:319–334. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2018.02.022. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources