Smart materials-integrated sensor technologies for COVID-19 diagnosis

Abstract

After the first case has appeared in China, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose an omnipresent threat to global health, affecting more than 70 million patients and leading to around 1.6 million deaths. To implement rapid and effective clinical management, early diagnosis is the mainstay. Today, real-time reverse transcriptase (RT)-PCR test is the major diagnostic practice as a gold standard method for accurate diagnosis of this disease. On the other side, serological assays are easy to be implemented for the disease screening. Considering the limitations of today's tests including lengthy assay time, cost, the need for skilled personnel, and specialized infrastructure, both strategies, however, have impediments to be applied to the resource-scarce settings. Therefore, there is an urgent need to democratize all these practices to be applicable across the globe, specifically to the locations comprising of very limited infrastructure. In this regard, sensor systems have been utilized in clinical diagnostics largely, holding great potential to have pivotal roles as an alternative or complementary options to these current tests, providing crucial fashions such as being suitable for point-of-care settings, cost-effective, and having short turnover time. In particular, the integration of smart materials into sensor technologies leverages their analytical performances, including sensitivity, linear dynamic range, and specificity. Herein, we comprehensively review major smart materials such as nanomaterials, photosensitive materials, electrically sensitive materials, their integration with sensor platforms, and applications as wearable tools within the scope of the COVID-19 diagnosis.

COVID 19 – Possible interrelations with respiratory comorbidities caused by occupational exposure to various hazardous bioaerosols. Part II. Clinical course, diagnostics, treatment and prevention

“…IgM antibodies are detected within the first several weeks, while IgG antibodies are detected later. Detection of antibodies confirms past contact with the virus; unfortunately, the absence of antibodies does not provide a basis for the exclusion of past infection [41].…”

“…Moreover, the use of nanoparticle-based markers can enable the study of the mechanism by which viruses infect host cells. Among a variety of nanomaterials that could be used for virus detection, gold nanoparticles and graphene seem the most promising [41,49].…”

Nanoscience versus Viruses: The SARS‐CoV‐2 Case

“…The most frequently used nanomaterial for FET sensing platforms is graphene, characterized by high electronic conductivity, carrier mobility, and the large specific surface area, which provides an optimal environment for ultrasensitive detection. [447,448] Ono et al [449] demonstrated the graphene FET functionalized with sialoglycan for the selective detection of the influenza virus. It exhibited very high sensitivity and specificity toward two lectins derived from Sambucus sieboldiana and Maackia amurensis used as alternatives to the human and avian virus.…”

Smart Sensing for COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Erdem et al [14] demonstrated that COVID-19 has caused a serious of devastating effects on global health system, which needs rapid and aggressive solutions to quickly curtail the spread. The authors noted that effective clinical management and implement strategies through prompt diagnostic techniques are a mainstay.…”