Electrochemical diagnostics of infectious viral diseases: Trends and challenges

Abstract

Infectious diseases caused by viruses can elevate up to undesired pandemic conditions affecting the global population and normal life function. These in turn impact the established world economy, create jobless situations, physical, mental, emotional stress, and challenge the human survival. Therefore, timely detection, treatment, isolation and prevention of spreading the pandemic infectious diseases not beyond the originated town is critical to avoid global impairment of life (e.g., Corona virus disease - 2019, COVID-19). The objective of this review article is to emphasize the recent advancements in the electrochemical diagnostics of twelve life-threatening viruses namely - COVID-19, Middle east respiratory syndrome (MERS), Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Influenza, Hepatitis, Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), Human papilloma virus (HPV), Zika virus, Herpes simplex virus, Chikungunya, Dengue, and Rotavirus. This review describes the design, principle, underlying rationale, receptor, and mechanistic aspects of sensor systems reported for such viruses. Electrochemical sensor systems which comprised either antibody or aptamers or direct/mediated electron transfer in the recognition matrix were explicitly segregated into separate sub-sections for critical comparison. This review emphasizes the current challenges involved in translating laboratory research to real-world device applications, future prospects and commercialization aspects of electrochemical diagnostic devices for virus detection. The background and overall progress provided in this review are expected to be insightful to the researchers in sensor field and facilitate the design and fabrication of electrochemical sensors for life-threatening viruses with broader applicability to any desired pathogens.

Keywords: COVID-19; Diagnostics; Electrochemical biosensors; Infectious diseases; Point of care (POC); Virus detection.

Graphical abstract

Fig. 1

Schematic representation of the role of electrochemical sensors in viral infectious diseases diagnostics.

Fig. 2

Biosensors constructed for the selective detection of SARS-CoV-2 using (A) CRISPR–Cas12 based RT-LAMP assay. Reproduced with permission (Broughton et al., 2020). Copyright 2020, Nature. (B) FET. Reproduced with permission (Seo et al., 2020). Copyright 2020, American Chemical Society. (C) Voltammetry. Reproduced with permission (Fabiani et al., 2021). Copyright 2021, Elsevier.

Fig. 3

Electrochemical detection of (A) HIV-1 using the Au/MoS₂ NPs/Au Nanolayer|PET. Reproduced with permission (Shin et al., 2019). Copyright 2019, MDPI. (B) Avian Influenza Virus using enzyme catalysis. Reproduced with permission (Fu et al., 2014). Copyright 2014, American Chemical Society. (C) Zika Virus in serum using surface imprinted graphene oxide composite. Reproduced with permission (Tancharoen et al., 2019). Copyright 2019, American Chemical Society. (D) Dengue virus using surface imprinted GO-polymer|Au. Reproduced with permission (Navakul et al., 2017). Copyright 2017, Elsevier.

Fig. 4

Electrochemical detection of (A) MERS-CoV using modified SPCE. Reproduced with permission (Layqah and Eissa, 2019). Copyright 2019, Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria. (B) Rotavirus through the graphene film-based immuno-sensor. Reproduced with permission (F. Liu et al., 2011). Copyright 2011, Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria. (C) HBsAg using graphene paste electrode. Reproduced with permission (Huang et al., 2012). Copyright 2012, Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria. (D) human HBsAg using GO/Fe₃O₄/PB nanocomposite modified SPE. Reproduced with permission (Wei et al., 2020). Copyright 2020, MDPI.

Fig. 5

Electrochemical sensors constructed for the detection of (A) hepatitis B virus using modified SPCE. Reproduced with permission (Akkapinyo et al., 2020). Copyright 2020, Elsevier. (B) Bovine herpesvirus type 1 AG using ^AGCE/AB^Cas:AG. Reproduced with permission (Garcia et al., 2020). Copyright 2020, Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim. (C) Single molecule HIV-1 p24 using the electrolyte-gated organic field-effect transistors. Reproduced with permission (Macchia et al., 2020). Copyright 2020, Elsevier. (D) Norovirus using NoroBP peptide modified SPGE. Reproduced with permission (Baek et al., 2019). Copyright 2019, Elsevier.

Fig. 6

Electrochemical aptasensors constructed for the specific detection of avian influenza A viruses (A) H5N1. Reproduced with permission (X. Liu et al., 2011). Copyright 2011, Elsevier. (B) H7N9. Reproduced with permission (Dong et al., 2015). Copyright 2015, American Chemical Society.

Fig. 7

Electrochemical detection of HIV using (A) long-range self-assembled DNA nanostructures. Reproduced with permission (Chen et al., 2012). Copyright 2012, American Chemical Society. (B) Graphene stabilized gold nanoclusters. Reproduced with permission (Wang et al., 2015). Copyright 2015, American Chemical Society. (C) Peptide-based biosensing platform (Gerasimov and Lai, 2010) Copyright 2010, Royal Society of Chemistry. (D) Diamond-FET-based RNA aptamer. Reproduced with permission (Rahim Ruslinda et al., 2013). Copyright 2013, Elsevier.