Advances in Enzyme-Based Biosensors for Pesticide Detection

Abstract

The intensive use of toxic and remanent pesticides in agriculture has prompted research into novel performant, yet cost-effective and fast analytical tools to control the pesticide residue levels in the environment and food. In this context, biosensors based on enzyme inhibition have been proposed as adequate analytical devices with the added advantage of using the toxicity of pesticides for detection purposes, being more “biologically relevant” than standard chromatographic methods. This review proposes an overview of recent advances in the development of biosensors exploiting the inhibition of cholinesterases, photosynthetic system II, alkaline phosphatase, cytochrome P450A1, peroxidase, tyrosinase, laccase, urease, and aldehyde dehydrogenase. While various strategies have been employed to detect pesticides from different classes (organophosphates, carbamates, dithiocarbamates, triazines, phenylureas, diazines, or phenols), the number of practical applications and the variety of environmental and food samples tested remains limited. Recent advances focus on enhancing the sensitivity and selectivity by using nanomaterials in the sensor assembly and novel mutant enzymes in array-type sensor formats in combination with chemometric methods for data analysis. The progress in the development of solar cells enriched the possibilities for efficient wiring of photosynthetic enzymes on different surfaces, opening new avenues for development of biosensors for photosynthesis-inhibiting herbicides.

Enzyme-Based Biosensors for Electrochemical Detection of Pesticides–A Mini Review

“…Recent advances focus on the applications of novel nanomaterials in biosensor devices for enhancing the sensitivity and selectivity of the measurements. New avenues are being opened for development of biosensors for photosynthesis-inhibiting herbicides using immobilization of photosynthetic enzymes on different surfaces [52].…”

Introductory Chapter: The Prospective of Biosensing in Environmental Monitoring

“…[16][17][18][19][20][21][22] have been developed. In addition, biosensors for the detection of phenolic compounds [23][24][25][26], pesticides [27][28][29][30], pathogens [9,[31][32][33][34][35] and drug residues [36,37] have been developed.…”

Red inalámbrica de biosensores enzimáticos para la detección de contaminantes en aguas

“…Los dispositivos son unidades autónomas llamados nodos, los cuales tienen como tarea principal recolectar datos. Debido a que los nodos pueden ser ubicados en zonas remotas o de difícil acceso, cada nodo necesita consumir la menor cantidad de energía posible para asegurar la máxima autonomía [33]; así, el acceso a estas zonas no deberá ser recurrente, evitando sobrecostos en su mantenimiento. Un nodo generalmente es un sistema basado en un microcontrolador que incorpora un módulo de radio frecuencia (RF), un sensor y un sistema de alimentación eléctrica [34].…”