The perspectives of biomarker-based electrochemical immunosensors, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Medical Things toward COVID-19 diagnosis and management

Abstract

The WHO has declared the COVID-19 an international health emergency due to the severity of infection progression which become more severe due to its continuous spread globally and the unavailability of appropriate therapy and diagnostics systems. Thus, there is a need for efficient devices to detect SARS-CoV-2 infection at an early stage. Nowadays, the RT-PCR technique is being applied for detecting this virus around the globe; however, factors such as stringent expertise, long diagnostic times, invasive and painful screening, and high costs have restricted the use of RT-PCR methods for rapid diagnostics. Therefore, the development of cost-effective, portable, sensitive, prompt, and selective sensing systems to detect SARS-CoV-2 in biofluids at fM/pM/nM concentrations would be a breakthrough in diagnostics. Immunosensors that show increased specificity and sensitivity are considerably fast, and don’t imply costly reagents or instruments, reducing the cost for COVID-19 detection. The current developments in immunosensors perhaps signify the most significant opportunity for a rapid assay to detect COVID-19, without the need of highly skilled professionals and specialized tools to interpret results. Artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) can also be equipped with this immunosensing approach to investigate useful networking through database management, sharing, and analytics to prevent and manage COVID-19. Herein, we represent the collective concepts of biomarkers based immunosensors along with AI and IoMT as smart sensing strategies with bioinformatics approach to monitor non-invasive early stage SARS-CoV-2 development, with fast POC diagnostics as the crucial goal. This approach should be implemented quickly and verified practicality for clinical samples before being set in the present times for mass-diagnostic research.

Microfluidic Point-of-Care (POC) Devices in Early Diagnosis: A Review of Opportunities and Challenges

“…With the advent of microfluidic chips that can be used to perform immune detection, the rapid detection of COVID-19 can be achieved without highly skilled professionals and tools. Through artificial intelligence, Internet of Medical Things technologies, and an appropriate immunosensor, doctors can conduct timely diagnoses and communicate with the patient through telemedicine platforms [129]. Similarly, 5G wireless transmission technologies have improved telemedicine services.…”

A Review on Potential Electrochemical Point-of-Care Tests Targeting Pandemic Infectious Disease Detection: COVID-19 as a Reference

“…Thus, the ASSURED criteria are expected to become a REASSURED policy (where RE means real-time connectivity) [40]. Via wireless connectivity (or internet data) and app software, smartphones can also support the management of isolation, quarantining, and medication through epidemiological reporting with the test results (i.e., evidence-based disease surveillance or contact tracing) during the pandemic sessions [33,34,58,60,61].…”

“…While the smartphone has demonstrated its utility as a portable diagnostic analyzer, developing specialized app software and/or artificial intelligence (AI)-aided framework for the smartphone that targets the reporting of POC diagnostic data and patient's geolocation to a pandemic monitoring cell can make the smartphone an excellent surveillance tool. As a result, evidence-based epidemiological databasing may be reinforced and integrated with national pandemic disease management and policymaking i.e., contact tracing, isolation/quarantining, and telemedicine [33,34,58,60,61]. In this wisdom, highly sensitive electrochemical POCT paired with a smartphone and internet connectivity can serve as the REASSURED diagnostic platform, which can provide high-precision evidencebased epidemiological reporting via real-time geo-mapping (Figure 1) [31,33].…”

“…Interfacing internet connectivity with the reader can unlock much greater potential. Remote testing, geo-tagging, and telemedicine may all be accomplished as a result, which is crucial for evidence-based pandemic surveillance [33,34,58,60,61].…”

“…Electrochemical diagnostic methods have received wide attention because of their simplicity, low cost, miniaturization, and sensitive analytical capabilities. Consequently, a few reviews on electrochemical biosensors were periodically published highlighting subjects such as overall perspective studies [25][26][27], a systematic review [28], emerging nanomaterials [29,30], immunosensors [31], detection and inactivation [32], artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of medical thing (IoMT) [33,34]. Many of them covered electrochemical sensors from previous investigations and highlighted a few of the amazing electrochemical tests reported for SARS-CoV-2 detection.…”