Advances in emergent biological recognition elements and bioelectronics for diagnosing COVID-19

Abstract

Coronaviruses pose a serious threat to public health. Tremendous efforts are dedicated to advance reliable and effective detection of coronaviruses. Currently, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) diagnosis mainly relies on the detection of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) genetic materials by using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay. However, simpler and more rapid and reliable alternatives are needed to meet high demand during the pandemic. Biosensor-based diagnosis approaches become alternatives for selectively and rapidly detecting virus particles because of their biorecognition elements consisting of biomaterials that are specific to virus biomarkers. Here, we summarize biorecognition materials, including antibodies and antibody-like molecules, that are designed to recognize SARS-CoV-2 biomarkers and the advances of recently developed biosensors for COVID-19 diagnosis. The design of biorecognition materials or layers is crucial to maximize biosensing performances, such as high selectivity and sensitivity of virus detection. Additionally, the recent representative achievements in developing bioelectronics for sensing coronavirus are included. This review includes scholarly articles, mainly published in 2020 and early 2021. In addition to capturing the fast development in the fields of applied materials and biodiagnosis, the outlook of this rapidly evolving technology is summarized. Early diagnosis of COVID-19 could help prevent the spread of this contagious disease and provide significant information to medical teams to treat patients.

Electrochemical biosensors for SARS-CoV-2 detection: Voltametric or impedimetric transduction?

“…Voltametric aptasensors are among the most sensitive biosensors, allowing the detection of the femtomolar. Similar sensitivity was reached with the impedimetric biosensor based on the specific ACE2 receptor [63] .…”

“…More accurate interactions are required for a more sensitive and selective detection [62] . Torres and coworkers [63] proposed “RAPID”, an impedimetric biosensor able to detect SARS-CoV-2 S-protein within 4 minutes, by transforming the biochemical information from the specific molecular binding event between SARS-CoV-2 S-protein and angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2) into an electrical signal. The binding between these two molecules causes a change in interfacial electron transfer kinetics of the redox probe and the electrode surface, detectable by measuring the Rct value.…”

“…List of abbreviations: Cu 2 O NCs= Cu 2 O nanocubes; Prot A=protein A; WO 3 = tungsten oxide; TFGE=thin film gold electrode; GA=glutaraldehyde; ACE2= angiotensin-converting enzyme-2; ABB= affinity-based biosensor; PFDT=1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecanethiol; PCB-AuE=printed circuit board gold electrode; VTM=viral transport medium. Sensor Technique Biomarker Biosensor Platform Nano-sensor Biosensor format Sample Linear range LOD References immunosensor EIS S-protein EDC-NHS/rGO/GC/S-protein Ab yes label free PBS 0.16-1.25 μg/mL2.5- 40 μg/mL 150 ng/mL [55] immunosensor EIS S-protein BSA/S-protein Ab/ProtA/Cu 2 O NCs/SPCE yes label free PBS 0.25 fg/ml -1 μg/mL 0.04 fg/mL [56] aptasensor EIS S-protein TFGE/SARS-CoV-2 Optimer no label free PBS - - [57] VIP-sensor EIS SARS-CoV-2 virus CNTs/WO 3 /SPCE yes label free PBS - 57 pg/mL3.7 copy/mL [61] ABB EIS S-protein ACE2/GA/SPE/ACE2 no label free PBSsaliva 10 fg/mL-100 ng/mL100 fg/mL-100 ng/mL 2.18 fg/mL1.39 pg/mL [63] ABB EIS S-protein EDC/NHS/AuSPE/ACE2 no label free PBS 700-1500 ng/mL1500-7000 ng/mL 299.3 ng/mL [64] ...…”

Emerging Biosensors to Detect Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2): A Review

“…These antibodies are specific to a single epitope of a target molecule, but a slight change in conformation may lead to a dramatically reduced binding capacity [ 121 , 122 ]. However, an alternative approach known as antibody phage display can be employed, where the monoclonal antibodies can be engineered to improve binding affinity with specific viral markers [ 123 , 124 ]. The conventional method of producing monoclonal antibodies requires expensive experimentation with animals and labour-intensive procedures.…”

Point-of-care diagnosis of COVID-19 disease based on antigen tests

“…The development is founded on the implementation of new technologies and materials providing better specifi cations of the assays. New nanomaterials (89)(90)(91), molecules with an improved recognition capability -biorecognition elements like new type of antibodies or aptamers (92)(93)(94) and devices suitable for the point-of-care bioassays combining the biorecognition elements with a sensor platform, biosensors, and similar point-of-care diagnostic means (95)(96)(97)(98)(99)(100)(101)(102) are progressively evolving in the COVID-19 diagnostics.…”