The role of electrochemical biosensors in SARS-CoV-2 detection: a bibliometrics-based analysis and review

Abstract

The global pandemic of COVID-19, which began in late 2019, has resulted in extremely high morbidity and severe mortality worldwide, with important implications for human health, international trade, and national politics. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is the primary pathogen causing COVID-19. Analytical chemistry played an important role in this global epidemic event, and detection of SARS-CoV-2 even became a part of daily life. Analytical chemists have devoted much effort and enthusiasm to this event, and different analytical techniques have shown very rapid development. Electrochemical biosensors are highly efficient, sensitive, and cost-effective and have been used to detect many highly pathogenic viruses long before this event. However, another fact is that electrochemical biosensors are not the technology of choice for most detection applications. This review describes for the first time the role played by electrochemical biosensors in SARS-CoV-2 detection from a bibliometric perspective. This paper analyzed 254 relevant research papers up to June 2022. The contributions of different countries and institutions to this topic were analyzed. Keyword analysis was used to explore different methodological attempts of electrochemical detection techniques. More importantly, we are trying to find an answer to the question: do electrochemical biosensors have the potential to become a genuinely employable detection technology in an outbreak of infectious disease?

Fig. 1. Top 9 journals that published articles on the electrochemical biosensors in SARS-CoV-2 detection.

Fig. 2. Rose plot of papers related to the electrochemical biosensors in SARS-CoV-2 detection contributed by different countries (countries with fewer than 4 papers are not included).

Fig. 3. Institution cooperation network for electrochemical biosensors in SARS-CoV-2 detection.

Fig. 4. Grouping of keywords for electrochemical biosensors in SARS-CoV-2 detection.

Fig. 5. Scheme of MIP-based electrochemical biosensor for N-protein detection. Reprinted with permission. Copyright 2022, Elsevier.

Fig. 6. (A) Scheme of MIP-based electrochemical biosensor for N-protein detection. (B) Detection workflow of SARS-CoV-2 using the electrochemical biosensor with RCA of the N and S genes. (C) Using sampling frequency to“resonance” with the molecular motion for SARS-CoV-2 labelled protein detection. Reprinted with permission. Copyright 2022, Elsevier, Springer Nature, American Chemical Society.

Fig. 7. Reference analysis of electrochemical biosensors in SARS-CoV-2 detection.

Fig. 8. (A) Scheme of detection principle of the COVID-19 ePAD. (B) Scheme of SARS-CoV-2 RapidPlex for rapid and multiplex electrochemical detection of SARS-CoV-2 in blood and saliva. (C) Scheme of ECDAQ platform. Reprinted with permission. Copyright 2022, Elsevier.