Point-of-care electrochemical testing of biomarkers involved in inflammatory and inflammatory-associated medical conditions

Abstract

Recent years have shown that the diagnosis and monitoring of biomarkers involved in inflammatory-associated medical conditions such as cancer, neurological disorders, viral infections, or daily physical activities offer real benefits in increasing the quality of medical care and patient life quality. In this context, the use of integrated and portable platforms as point-of-care testing devices for biomedical analysis to enable early disease diagnosis and monitoring, which can be successfully used even at the patient's bed, is an emergency nowadays. The development of low-cost, miniaturized, and portable, user-friendly devices that provide an answer in a timely manner, such as electrochemical sensors, is relevant for the elaboration of point-of-care testing devices. This review focuses on the recent progress in bioanalysis of both specific biomarkers and inflammatory-associated biomarkers present in several diseases like neoplasia, severe neurological disorders, viral infections, and usual physical activity and provides an overview of the state of the art over the most recent electrochemical (bio)sensors for the detection of inflammation-related biomarkers. Future perspectives of point-of-care testing to improve healthcare management are also discussed.

Keywords: Biomarkers; Electroanalytical methods; Inflammation; Point-of-care testing; Wearable sensors.

Fig. 1

General illustration of the use of POCT devices for diagnosis, monitoring, or prognosis purposes in inflammatory-related diseases for improved healthcare management (original figure created with Biorender.com)

Fig. 2

Schematic representation of POCT electrochemical devices (original figure created with Biorender.com)

Fig. 3

Schematic representation of A SARS-CoV-2 virus; B domain architecture of SARS-CoV-2 N protein. Reprinted with permission by Elsevier from [12]

Fig. 4

Schematic representation of the detection procedure of the COVID-19 ePAD for IgG and IgM antibodies. Illustration of the A device components, B detection principle, and C detection procedure of the COVID-19 ePAD. Reprinted with permission by Elsevier [144]