A mini review on the use of biosensors for indirectly assisting the diagnosis of fibromyalgia

Abstract

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a syndrome known mainly for causing muscular and skeletal pain, whose etiology still remains unknown. Besides intense pain, FM patients can also present a clinical picture of fatigue, insomnia, headaches and intestinal changes. One of the most important challenges related to the disease is the difficult diagnosis, which can be confusing because it presents symptoms common in many other pathologies (like anxiety and depression). Some characteristics that can contribute to a better diagnosis are the differences in the level of certain biological molecules, such as some hormones and markers. The conversion of the information referring to the levels of these biological compounds into a measurable analytical signal is the focus of some biosensors recently reported in the literature. These devices are expected to collaborate in increasing the reliability of the indirect FM diagnostics. In this sense, this mini review presents an overview on the recent trends on the fabrication of some biosensors based on different transduction mechanisms and bioreceptors to detect analytes of interest for the indirect diagnosis of FM.