Recent advances on the electrochemical transduction techniques for the biosensing of pharmaceuticals in aquatic environments

Abstract

Due to the potential risk to the environment and humans' health, there has been an increasing concern on the development of new analytical methods for monitoring the presence of pharmaceuticals in various aquatic ecosystems, such as in freshwaters (rivers and lakes), sewage and sea water. The conventional techniques, such as liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry are not only laborious but possess other important limitations, such as the high cost and/or the low sensitivity for this application, which needs to be rapidly overwhelmed. In light of this context, the electrochemical biosensors combine the attractive features of biological components (mainly the high selectivity of enzymes, antibodies and nucleic acids) used as units of recognition to the robustness of the electrochemical techniques, which provides stable output signals even at low concentrations of the target analytes. In this mini review, we reported the recent researches in the field of biosensors for the detection of important pharmaceuticals, whose transduction mechanisms are based on amperometric, potentiometric, conductometric and impedimetric methods.

Integrated Electrochemical Biosensors for Detection of Waterborne Pathogens in Low-Resource Settings

“…In this review, three different electrochemical biosensor types, that are classified based on their sensing methods, are summarized and compared in Table 1. Electrochemical sensors are widely utilized for environmental water analyses, such as handheld PH meters (potentiometric), integrated components in high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) (amperometric), or dedicated sensing platforms for prevalent chemical pollutant monitoring, e.g., pesticides [91], licit [92][93][94] and illicit drugs [95], endocrine disturbing compounds [96], heavy metal ions [97], etc. There is no doubt that such chemical sensors are of great importance in water quality monitoring and population size and community lifestyle estimation [98].…”

Application of biosensors in the petrochemical industry: a mini review on the sensing platforms for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons detection

“…Electrochemical and optical techniques have been the most employed transduction methods in this context. According to Fiel et al 11 the electrochemical transduction mode comprises a group of techniques capable to offer, besides the advantageous low LOD as shown in Table 2, other important characteristics for the development of an analytical method for PAHs detection, such as high accuracy, reliability, simplicity, and cost-effectiveness. On the other hand, Damborský et al 32 highlight in the optical biosensors their small sizes leading to the possibility of fabricating portable devices that enables real-time measurements.…”

“…The magnitude of the output signal is proportional to the analyte concentration and can be interpreted to infer about the biosensor's limit of detection (LOD), selectivity and linearity. 11 In our previous publications, [11][12][13] we have reported that the probe is one of the main components in the biosensor configuration because it can provide, especially, great selectivity to the device. Antibodies, antigens, enzymes, whole cells, organelles, microorganisms, tissues, etc.…”

“…are the main examples of biological elements used in the development of biosensors aiming to achieve high levels of sensitivity and selectivity towards the analytes of interest. 11 Accordingly and inspired by the promising features of biosensors, the purpose of this research was to review the current scientific contributions on the topic of biosensing platforms for detection and quantification of PAHs in the environment.…”

Application of Nanostructured Carbon-Based Electrochemical (Bio)Sensors for Screening of Emerging Pharmaceutical Pollutants in Waters and Aquatic Species: A Review

“…These are significant advantages over other competitive nanomaterials (essentially metallic nanoparticles), leading to their wide application in (bio)sensors technology [ 44 , 45 , 46 ]. However, the research available on this subject is still very limited, especially regarding biota analysis [ 35 , 36 , 47 , 48 ].…”