Label-Free Electrochemical Biosensors for the Determination of Flaviviruses: Dengue, Zika, and Japanese Encephalitis

Abstract

A highly effective way to improve prognosis of viral infectious diseases and to determine the outcome of infection is early, fast, simple, and efficient diagnosis of viral pathogens in biological fluids. Among a wide range of viral pathogens, Flaviviruses attract a special attention. Flavivirus genus includes more than 70 viruses, the most familiar being dengue virus (DENV), Zika virus (ZIKV), and Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV). Haemorrhagic and encephalitis diseases are the most common severe consequences of flaviviral infection. Currently, increasing attention is being paid to the development of electrochemical immunological methods for the determination of Flaviviruses. This review critically compares and evaluates recent research progress in electrochemical biosensing of DENV, ZIKV, and JEV without labelling. Specific attention is paid to comparison of detection strategies, electrode materials, and analytical characteristics. The potential of so far developed biosensors is discussed together with an outlook for further development in this field.

Electrochemical diagnostics of infectious viral diseases: Trends and challenges

“…Various review articles have assessed the performance of sensor systems proposed for the detection of viruses. Some of these review articles have summarized the detection of viruses such as HIV ( Farzin et al, 2020 ; Nawaz et al, 2020 ; Parolo et al, 2020a ; Rodrigo et al, 2014 ), HIV-1 ( Lifson et al, 2016 ), Influenza ( Krejcova et al, 2014 ), Avian Influenza ( Moulick et al, 2017 ), Human and Animal Influenza ( Dziąbowska et al, 2018 ), Hepatitis B ( Yao, 2014 ), Noroviruses ( Liu and Moore, 2020 ), bacterial, viral, and toxin bio-threats ( Walper et al, 2018 ), pathogens ( Mokhtarzadeh et al, 2017 ), SARS ( Halfpenny and Wright, 2010 ; Orooji et al, 2021 ; Tran et al, 2020 ), COVID-19 ( Chauhan et al, 2020 ; H. Chen et al, 2020 ; Ji et al, 2020 ; Jin et al, 2020 ; H. Li et al, 2020 ; Morales-Narváez and Dincer, 2020 ; Ravi et al, 2020 ; Shereen et al, 2020 ; Udugama et al, 2020 ; Wang et al, 2020 ; Weiss et al, 2020 ), Dengue, Zika ( Khristunova et al, 2020 ), viruses in the aquatic environment ( Farkas et al, 2020 ; Srivastava et al, 2020 ; Tran et al, 2020 ), viruses in the food, environmental samples ( Yadav et al, 2010 ), and antibody specific to the viruses ( Parolo et al, 2020a ; Xu et al, 2019 ). Other review articles have summarized the sensor systems constructed for the detection of different viruses using simple device-based approaches ( Cheng et al, 2009 ), nano-electronic devices ( Yeom, 2011 ), bioanalytical microsystems ( Yadav et al, 2010 ), integrated sensor systems ( Dincau et al, 2017 ), microfluidic system ( Sin et al, 2014 ), paper-based microfluidic system ( Deka et al, 2020 ; Gong and Sinton, 2017 ), POC devices ( Tram et al, 2016 ), lab-on-a-chip technologies ( Zhu et al, 2020 ), piezoelectric, magnetostrictive ( Narita et al, 2020 ...…”

“…On the other hand, some review articles have focused on the recognition matrix comprising Au nanoparticles ( Draz and Shafiee, 2018 ; Franco et al, 2015 ; Halfpenny and Wright, 2010 ), Quantum dots (QD) ( Halfpenny and Wright, 2010 ; Yeom, 2011 ), carbon nanotubes/nanowires ( Yeom, 2011 ), Aptamers ( Acquah et al, 2016 ; Hong et al, 2012 ; Labib and Berezovski, 2013 ), label-free and labeled immuno assays ( Parolo et al, 2020b ; Sin et al, 2014 ), molecularly imprinted polymers (MIP) ( Cui et al, 2020 ; Yang et al, 2020 ), and other nanomaterials ( Kizek et al, 2015 ; Mokhtarzadeh et al, 2017 ; Nasrollahzadeh et al, 2020 ). Some of the review articles have focused on the transduction methods in virus diagnosis based on optical and/or electrochemical techniques ( Cheng and Toh, 2013 ; Cui et al, 2020 ; Khristunova et al, 2020 ; Krejcova et al, 2014 ; Ozer et al, 2020 ; Xu et al, 2019 ; Yang et al, 2020 ). On the contrary, one review article has highlighted the applications of bacteriophages (lytic and nonlytic) of viruses in conjugation with nanomaterials (virus–nanomaterial composites) used in the analytical devices towards the detection of explosives, proteins, bacteria, viruses, spores, and toxins ( Mao et al, 2009 ).…”

A Redox Cu(II)-Graphene Oxide Modified Screen Printed Carbon Electrode as a Cost-Effective and Versatile Sensing Platform for Electrochemical Label-Free Immunosensor and Non-enzymatic Glucose Sensor

“…The devices present great advantages in determining the target analytes in complicated systems. They also offer low limits of detections (LODs) and high sensitivity (Khristunova et al, 2020 ).…”

Facile, Label‐Free, Non‐Enzymatic Electrochemical Nanobiosensor Platform as a Significant Step towards Continuous Glucose Monitoring

“…Additionally, in electrochemical biosensors, the presence of labels often affects the kinetics and the binding of analytes, thus giving false results, and such false positives can be avoided with the label-free methods, providing more reproducible and consistent detection results. [3,4] The performance of electrochemical-based biosensors predominantly depends on the physicochemical properties of the working electrode where it not only acts as the medium of electron transfer but, more importantly, acts as an immobilization platform for selective adsorption of the target analyte. Thus, it is imperative to engineer this electrode to achieve the best possible sensitivity and selectivity in terms of its morphology and kinetics.…”

“…The immobilized biomolecules are usually receptors or mediators of electron transfer, which selectively bind to the analyte. Additionally, in electrochemical biosensors, the presence of labels often affects the kinetics and the binding of analytes, thus giving false results, and such false positives can be avoided with the label‐free methods, providing more reproducible and consistent detection results [3,4] …”