Outlook of various diagnostics and nanodiagnostic techniques for COVID-19

Abstract

The sudden outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has brought to the fore the existing threat of disease-causing pathogens that affect public health all over the world. It has left the best healthcare systems struggling to contain the spread of disease and its consequences. Under challenging circumstances, several innovative technologies have emerged that facilitated quicker diagnosis and treatment. Nanodiagnostic devices are biosensing platforms developed using nanomaterials such as nanoparticles, nanotubes, nanowires, etc. These devices have the edge over conventional techniques such as reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) because of their ease of use, quicker analysis, possible miniaturization, and scope for use in point-of-care (POC) treatment. This review discusses the techniques currently used for COVID-19 diagnosis, emphasizing nanotechnology-based diagnostic devices. The commercialized nanodiagnostic devices in various research and development stages are also reviewed. The advantages of nanodiagnostic devices over other techniques are discussed, along with their limitations. Additionally, the important implications of the utility of nanodiagnostic devices in COVID-19, their prospects for future development for use in clinical and POC settings, and personalized healthcare are also discussed.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; Nanobiosensors; Nanodiagnostics; Nanoparticles; POC devices; SARS-CoV-2.

Fig. 1

Schematic representation of the different types of human coronaviruses (Created using biorender.com).

Fig. 2

Schematic representation of the various diagnostic techniques for COVID-19.

Fig. 3

Schematic of optical semi-quantitative LFIA using CMOS-based camera [Reprinted with permission from (Roda et al., 2021), Copyright 2020 Elsevier].

Fig. 4

Schematic representation of 96-well wax-printed paper-based ELISA immunoassay [Reprinted with permission from (Fabiani et al., 2021), Copyright 2021 Elsevier].

Fig. 5

Paper-based biosensor, COVID ePAD showing (A) components, (B) principle, and (C) detection method for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies [Reprinted with permission from (Yakoh et al., 2021), Copyright 2020, Elsevier].

Fig. 6

Schematic of PLAN-LFA assay [Reprinted with permission from (Jain et al., 2021), Copyright The Royal Society of Chemistry 2021)]

Fig. 7

Schematic representation of the nanotechnology-based diagnostic devices.

Fig. 8

GFET biosensor for detection of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein using spike protein-specific antibodies anchored to the graphene sheet using 1-pyrenebutyric acid N-hydroxysuccinimide ester [Reprinted with permission from (Seo et al., 2020), Copyright 2020, American Chemical Society, https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.0c02823; Note to readers - Further permission related to the material excerpted should be directed to the ACS].

Fig. 9

Suggested nanodiagnostic approaches for the management of the COVID-19 pandemic.