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Review
. 2022 Oct:155:116585.
doi: 10.1016/j.trac.2022.116585. Epub 2022 Mar 7.

Biosensors for the detection of disease outbreaks through wastewater-based epidemiology

Mildred G Jiménez-Rodríguez  1 , Fernando Silva-Lance  1 , Lizeth Parra-Arroyo  1 , D Alejandra Medina-Salazar  2 , Manuel Martínez-Ruiz  1 , Elda M Melchor-Martínez  1 , María Adriana Martínez-Prado  2 , Hafiz M N Iqbal  1 , Roberto Parra-Saldívar  1 , Damià Barceló  3   4   5 , Juan Eduardo Sosa-Hernández  1
Affiliations
Review

Biosensors for the detection of disease outbreaks through wastewater-based epidemiology

Mildred G Jiménez-Rodríguez et al. Trends Analyt Chem. 2022 Oct.

Abstract

Wastewater-Based Epidemiology (WBE) is a novel community-wide monitoring tool that provides comprehensive real-time data of the public and environmental health status and can contribute to public health interventions, including those related to infectious disease outbreaks (e.g., the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic). Nonetheless, municipalities without centralized laboratories are likely still not able to process WBE samples. Biosensors are a potentially cost-effective solution to monitor the development of diseases through WBE to prevent local outbreaks. This review discusses the economic and technical feasibility of eighteen recently developed biosensors for the detection and monitoring of infectious disease agents in wastewater, prospecting the prevention of future pandemics.

Keywords: Biosensing; Nanostructured; Pathogens; Resource-constrained regions; WBE.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Image 1
Graphical abstract
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The timeline of epidemics throughout history coupled with the evolution of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE). Abbreviations: Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV); Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS); Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS); Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS); Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR); Sewage Analysis CORe group Europe (SCORE); wastewater treatment plant (WWTP).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Scheme of an ideal biosensor for WBE. (1) Nano-based membrane facilitates raw sample retrieval and minimizes its processing. (2–3) Sample separation and nucleic acid extraction in order to improve the limits of detection (LOD) and purify the sample to enhance biomolecule recognition. (4) According to the type of biological recognition mechanism employed, the last step of the test should aid unskilled personnel to rapidly interpret the results onsite. Control and Test lines guarantee the proper use of the test and are marked with CL and TL respectively. Additionally, these sensors are based on visual identification.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Main challenges in sampling and quantification for wastewater-based epidemiology: (A) appropriate spatial and temporal sampling procedures, (b) efficient sample concentration and pretreatment methods, and (c) accurate quantification of the results. Created with BioRender.com.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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