Integrated Electrochemical Biosensors for Detection of Waterborne Pathogens in Low-Resource Settings

Abstract

More than 783 million people worldwide are currently without access to clean and safe water. Approximately 1 in 5 cases of mortality due to waterborne diseases involve children, and over 1.5 million cases of waterborne disease occur every year. In the developing world, this makes waterborne diseases the second highest cause of mortality. Such cases of waterborne disease are thought to be caused by poor sanitation, water infrastructure, public knowledge, and lack of suitable water monitoring systems. Conventional laboratory-based techniques are inadequate for effective on-site water quality monitoring purposes. This is due to their need for excessive equipment, operational complexity, lack of affordability, and long sample collection to data analysis times. In this review, we discuss the conventional techniques used in modern-day water quality testing. We discuss the future challenges of water quality testing in the developing world and how conventional techniques fall short of these challenges. Finally, we discuss the development of electrochemical biosensors and current research on the integration of these devices with microfluidic components to develop truly integrated, portable, simple to use and cost-effective devices for use by local environmental agencies, NGOs, and local communities in low-resource settings.

Rapid Detection of Legionella pneumophila in Drinking Water, Based on Filter Immunoassay and Chronoamperometric Measurement

“…Notwithstanding, currently available biosensors lag behind in terms of sensitivity and in most cases are unable to match therequirements of the current regulatory frameworks [45]. For this reason, one of the requirements for on-site detection devices is to integrate the capacity to preconcentrate (cells) or amplify (nucleic acids) the target [46].…”

Pseudomonas aeruginosa Detection Using Conventional PCR and Quantitative Real-Time PCR Based on Species-Specific Novel Gene Targets Identified by Pangenome Analysis

“…Automated systems such as VITEK 2, which walkway system that works on the principle of photometry, promise shorter turnaround times to detect P. aeruginosa , but these systems have a low rate of accuracy in the identification ( Torrecillas et al, 2020 ; Bhalla et al, 2021 ; Miranda-Ulloa et al, 2021 ; Pintado-Berninches et al, 2021 ; Viedma et al, 2021 ). Immunological approaches use the highly specific binding between antigens and antibodies and facilitate qualitative or quantitative detection that is based on specific reactions resulted from antigen antibody binding ( Rainbow et al, 2020 ). High-sensitivity detection has been reached by modern immunoassay approaches, but their relatively tedious procedures have limited further development ( Bhalla et al, 2021 ; Miranda-Ulloa et al, 2021 ; Viedma et al, 2021 ).…”

Recent advances in the biosensors application for the detection of bacteria and viruses in wastewater

“…Further research on the detection of pathogens in wastewater could open the door for lab-on-chip biosensing technology and possibly online detection of pathogens. It could be especially promising to develop such systems due to their cost effectiveness and possibility of being fabricated with cheap polymers and thin metal electrodes, in addition to miniaturization [100] . A major benefit and contribution that online biosensors can provide are early notifications on the presence of alarming pathogens in water.…”