Recent Advances on Electrochemical Biosensing Strategies toward Universal Point‐of‐Care Systems

Abstract

A number of very recently developed electrochemical biosensing strategies are promoting electrochemical biosensing systems into practical point‐of‐care applications. The focus of research endeavors has transferred from detection of a specific analyte to the development of general biosensing strategies that can be applied for a single category of analytes, such as nucleic acids, proteins, and cells. In this Minireview, recent cutting‐edge research on electrochemical biosensing strategies are described. These developments resolved critical challenges regarding the application of electrochemical biosensors to practical point‐of‐care systems, such as rapid readout, simple biosensor fabrication method, ultra‐high detection sensitivity, direct analysis in a complex biological matrix, and multiplexed target analysis. This Minireview provides general guidelines both for scientists in the biosensing research community and for the biosensor industry on development of point‐of‐care system, benefiting global healthcare.

Recent Developments of Electrochemical and Optical Biosensors for Antibody Detection

“…Electrochemical-based biosensors quantify the antibody concentration by measuring the current or the impedance through various electrochemical analytical methods. Electrochemical biosensors provide simple, cost-effective, and accurate measurements [14]. However, challenges remain in directly employing electrochemical detection strategies for point-of-care systems.…”

“…Clinical diagnosis with a rapid turnaround time enhances the time-efficiency of the healthcare workflow [14,49]. An effective method to detect HIV antibodies in complex biological samples based on steric hindrance was recently developed (Figure 5a) [50].…”

“…Thus, these methods are not ideal for the robust demands of a rapid, simple, cost-effective point-of-care system. In order to overcome this concern, a substantial number of advanced detection methods of antibodies have recently been developed, especially methods based on optical and electrochemical systems [13][14][15][16]. Optical systems measure an optical signal through fluorescent, colorimetric, or luminescent methods, enabling rapid, sensitive, and direct detection of antibodies.…”

“…Optical systems measure an optical signal through fluorescent, colorimetric, or luminescent methods, enabling rapid, sensitive, and direct detection of antibodies. Electrochemical systems are also ideal for the development of point-of-care devices due to their simplicity, portability, rapidness, cost-effectiveness and sensitivity with the capability of applying various transduction methods [14]. Detection of target biomarkers directly using human sera samples can be achieved using electrochemical detection method [17,18].…”

Opportunities, Challenges, and Prospects in Electrochemical Biosensing of Circulating Tumor DNA and its Specific Features

“…Electrochemical biosensors show remarkable features for the detection of ctDNA compared to these mentioned techniques, because of their great sensitivity, specificity, portability, plain use, rapid readout, and amenability to high levels of multiplexing and direct analysis in complex biological matrices. Moreover, they are simple to fabricate, straightforward to automate and implement using cost-effective instrumentation, which make them applicable in point-of-care (POC) systems and/or undeveloped areas [1,10,11].…”