Nanomaterial-Based Electrochemical Immunosensors for Clinically Significant Biomarkers

Abstract

Nanotechnology has played a crucial role in the development of biosensors over the past decade. The development, testing, optimization, and validation of new biosensors has become a highly interdisciplinary effort involving experts in chemistry, biology, physics, engineering, and medicine. The sensitivity, the specificity and the reproducibility of biosensors have improved tremendously as a result of incorporating nanomaterials in their design. In general, nanomaterials-based electrochemical immunosensors amplify the sensitivity by facilitating greater loading of the larger sensing surface with biorecognition molecules as well as improving the electrochemical properties of the transducer. The most common types of nanomaterials and their properties will be described. In addition, the utilization of nanomaterials in immunosensors for biomarker detection will be discussed since these biosensors have enormous potential for a myriad of clinical uses. Electrochemical immunosensors provide a specific and simple analytical alternative as evidenced by their brief analysis times, inexpensive instrumentation, lower assay cost as well as good portability and amenability to miniaturization. The role nanomaterials play in biosensors, their ability to improve detection capabilities in low concentration analytes yielding clinically useful data and their impact on other biosensor performance properties will be discussed. Finally, the most common types of electroanalytical detection methods will be briefly touched upon.

Progression in sensing cardiac troponin biomarker charge transductions on semiconducting nanomaterials

“…Furthermore, biomolecules can attach exceptionally to nanostructure materials with better loading capacities because nanostructured materials provide large surface area to volume ratios compared to conventional materials, such as polymeric membranes and fibrous structures [78].…”

Enzyme-Based Electrochemical Glutamate Biosensors

“…Furthermore, CNTs provide a tremendous increase in the surface area onto which enzymes or other biomolecules may be immobilized, which ultimately improves quantification of the chemical reaction that is being analyzed. CNTs are also ideal for use in biosensors as they are nontoxic, nanometer sized, strong, and chemically stable [76].…”

“…CNTs often significantly improve electron transfer and kinetics [75]. This is due to the electrical properties of CNTs which vary significantly and depend on the structural differences between CNTs, resulting in some CNTs being highly conductive like metals, while others act more like semiconductors [76]. The current carrying capacity of certain CNTs can be up to 1000 times greater than that of a copper wire [77].…”

Inkjet-printed microtiter plates for portable electrochemical immunoassays

“…In the electrochemical approach, a current is recorded as a result of an electron transfer from the molecules generated by the enzymatic reaction to a biased electrode. Such approach has attracted considerable interest because of simple instrumentation, easy signal quantification, portability, low cost and miniaturization possibilities [20][21][22][23]. For instance, in the typical TSH sandwich assay (Fig.…”