Luminescent Aptamer-Based Bioassays for Sensitive Detection of Food Allergens

Abstract

The presence of hidden allergens in food products, often due to unintended contamination along the food supply chain (production, transformation, processing, and transport), has raised the urgent need for rapid and reliable analytical methods for detecting trace levels of such species in food products. Indeed, food allergens represent a high-risk factor for allergic subjects due to potentially life-threatening adverse reactions. Portable biosensors based on immunoassays have already been developed as rapid, sensitive, selective, and low-cost analytical platforms that can replace analyses with traditional bench-top instrumentation. Recently, aptamers have attracted great interest as alternative biorecognition molecules for bioassays, since they can bind a variety of targets with high specificity and selectivity, and they enable the development of assays exploiting a variety of transduction and detection technologies. In particular, aptasensors based on luminescence detection have been proposed, taking advantage of the development of ultrasensitive tracers and enhancers. This review aims to summarize and discuss recent efforts in the field of food allergen analysis using aptamer-based bioassays with luminescence detection.

Emerging Trends of Immunosensors Development for Detection of Food Toxins

“…However, they need much time to prepare samples and are typically not portable, making them unsuitable for online monitoring, like in the production process (Ahuja et al, 2023;Franco-Duarte et al, 2019). On the other hand, sensor-based bioassays and microarray techniques are quick and sensitive methods for online detection and automated process control in the food production and supply chain ( Calabria et al, 2022;Mazur et al, 2023;Rahimi et al, 2020;Ricci, 2007;Saini et al, 2021). The use of the HACCP system for process line management at Critical Control Points, or CCPs, has raised the need for quick, sensitive, and precise ways to identify chemical and biological contaminants in the process.…”

A holistic pathway to biosensor translation

“…A robust correlation between the concentration levels of biomarkers in blood and sweat is challenging since biomarkers are transported into sweat from capillaries with distinctive partitioning profiles. 49 Additionally, biomarkers can reach the sweat by passive (e.g., diffusion) or active mechanisms, as well as be produced within the sweat duct itself. 49 Other potential issues related to sweat sample collection should also be considered since sweat is prone to evaporation, external contamination, and interference from the environment.…”

Engineering Strategies for Advancing Optical Signal Outputs in Smartphone‐Enabled Point‐of‐Care Diagnostics

“…There are other types of optical biosensors that are based on luminescence, including chemiluminescence, [ 49 ] thermochemiluminescence, [ 50 ] and electrochemiluminescence. [ 51 ] The housing design is similar to the aforementioned structures.…”