Virus Detection: From State‐of‐the‐Art Laboratories to Smartphone‐Based Point‐of‐Care Testing

Abstract

Infectious virus outbreaks pose a significant challenge to public healthcare systems. Early and accurate virus diagnosis is critical to prevent the spread of the virus, especially when no specific vaccine or effective medicine is available. In clinics, the most commonly used viral detection methods are molecular techniques that involve the measurement of nucleic acids or proteins biomarkers. However, most clinic‐based methods require complex infrastructure and expensive equipment, which are not suitable for low‐resource settings. Over the past years, smartphone‐based point‐of‐care testing (POCT) has rapidly emerged as a potential alternative to laboratory‐based clinical diagnosis. This review summarizes the latest development of virus detection. First, laboratory‐based and POCT‐based viral diagnostic techniques are compared, both of which rely on immunosensing and nucleic acid detection. Then, various smartphone‐based POCT diagnostic techniques, including optical biosensors, electrochemical biosensors, and other types of biosensors are discussed. Moreover, this review covers the development of smartphone‐based POCT diagnostics for various viruses including COVID‐19, Ebola, influenza, Zika, HIV, et al. Finally, the prospects and challenges of smartphone‐based POCT diagnostics are discussed. It is believed that this review will aid researchers better understand the current challenges and prospects for achieving the ultimate goal of containing disease‐causing viruses worldwide.

Aptasensors for the detection of infectious pathogens: design strategies and point-of-care testing

“…CRP-specific aptamer was immobilized on microarray chips in sandwich format for lateral flow assay, and the cutoff for CRP detection was 10 mg/L for the determination of infections/inflammation (≥ 10 mg/L CRP) in human patient samples. Smartphones is well-suited for POCT and personalized healthcare for their high-resolution cameras, advanced computing and data processing capabilities, and most importantly, global accessibility to users [178]. Optical signal output can be captured and analyzed readily with self-built cameras and programs installed on smartphones.…”

Visual Detection of COVID-19 from Materials Aspect

“…Smartphones, as a kind of ubiquitous portable devices played an increasingly important role in visual detection of viruses due to their high-resolution cameras, powerful data processing and storage capabilities. Various smartphone-based visual detection techniques, such as optical biosensors, electrochemical biosensors, surface acoustic wave biosensors have been developed [133,134]. In addition, the corresponding smartphone apps have also been developed to record, process and transmit the test data [135,136].…”

Point-of-care testing in companion and food animal disease diagnostics

“…The earliest antigen based POCT in animal disease diagnostic was the antigen detection assay developed for canine dirofilariasis in 1983-84 period (6)(7)(8). This paved the way for additional POCTs that utilized either antigen capture or antibody detection methods in companion animals (6).…”