Recent developments, characteristics, and potential applications of electrochemical biosensors.

The objective of this study is to analyze the technical importance, performance, techniques, advantages, and disadvantages of the biosensors in general and of the electrochemical biosensors in particular. A product of reaction diffuses to the transducer in the first generation biosensors (based on Clark biosensors). The mediated biosensors or second generation biosensors use specific mediators between the reaction and the transducer to improve sensitivity. The second generation biosensors involve two steps: first, there is a redox reaction between enzyme and substrate that is reoxidized by the mediator, and eventually the mediator is oxidized by the electrode. No normal product or mediator diffusion is directly involved in the third generation biosensors, direct biosensors. Based on the type of transducer, current biosensors are divided into optical, mass, thermal, and electrochemical sensors. They are used in medical diagnostics, food quality controls, environmental monitoring, and other applications. These biosensors are also grouped under two broad categories of sensors: direct and indirect detection systems. Moreover, these systems could be further grouped into continuous or batch operation. Therefore, amperometric biosensors and their current applications are focused on more in detail since they are the most commonly used biosensors in monitoring and diagnosing tests in clinical analysis. Problems related to the commercialization of medical, environmental, and industrial biosensors as well as their performance characteristics, their competitiveness in comparison to the conventional analytical tools, and their costs determine the future development of these biosensors.     

Nucleic acid biosensors for environmental pollution monitoring

Nucleic acid-based biosensors are finding increasing use for the detection of environmental pollution and toxicity. A biosensor is defined as a compact analytical device incorporating a biological or biologically-derived sensing element either integrated within or intimately associated with a physicochemical transducer. A nucleic acid-based biosensor employs as the sensing element an oligonucleotide, with a known sequence of bases, or a complex structure of DNA or RNA. Nucleic acid biosensors can be used to detect DNA/RNA fragments or either biological or chemical species. In the first application, DNA/RNA is the analyte and it is detected through the hybridization reaction (this kind of biosensor is also called a genosensor). In the second application, DNA/RNA plays the role of the receptor of specific biological and/or chemical species, such as target proteins, pollutants or drugs. Recent advances in the development and applications of nucleic acid-based biosensors for environmental application are reviewed in this article with special emphasis on functional nucleic acid elements (aptamers, DNAzymes, aptazymes) and lab-on-a-chip technology.     

Recent Applications of Carbon Nanomaterials for microRNA Electrochemical Sensing

MicroRNA (miRNA) is an important tumor marker in the human body, and its early detection has a great influence on the survival rate of patients. Although there are many detection methods for miRNA at present such as northern blotting, real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction, microarrays, and others, electrochemical biosensors have the advantages of low detection cost, small instrument size, simple operation, non-invasive detection and low consumption of reagents and solvents, and thus they play an important role in the early detection of cancer. In addition, with the development of nanotechnology, nano-biosensors show great potential. The application of various nanomaterials in the development of electrochemical biosensor has greatly improved the detection sensitivity of electrochemical biosensor. Among them, carbon nanomaterials which have unique electrical, optical, physical and chemical properties have attracted increasing attention. In particular, they have a large surface area, good biocompatibility and conductivity. Therefore, carbon nanomaterials combined with electrochemical methods can be used to detect miRNA quickly, easily and sensitively. In this review, we systematically review recent applications of different carbon nanomaterials (carbon nanotubes, graphene and its derivatives, graphitic carbon nitride, carbon dots, graphene quantum dots and other carbon nanomaterials) for miRNA electrochemical detection. In addition, we demonstrate the future prospects of electrochemical biosensors modified by carbon nanomaterials for the detection of miRNAs, and some suggestions for their development in the near future.     

基于适配体和抗体的生物传感器在雌二醇检测中的应用

雌二醇(Estradiol,E2)是一种主要的环境雌激素,具有作用强、危害广等特征,可扰乱人体及动物体的正常内分泌功能,从而产生不利影响,因此E2的快速、准确检测对于食品安全和公共卫生至关重要.传统的检测方法主要是基于大型仪器分析,这些方法具有高灵敏度、准确性的同时也存在操作繁琐、成本较高、仅限于在实验室内进行等缺陷....     

Toll-like receptors for pathogen detection in water: challenges and benefits

The need for effective and efficient methods for pathogen detection in water is as serious as ever due to the health risk posed to human population by the consumption of pathogen-contaminated water. One of the important research streams which have been focused on by researchers for development of novel techniques for this purpose is biosensor technologies. Using different bio-recognition elements and transduction methodologies, biosensors have the potential to detect their analyte of interest in a fast and highly specific manner. Different pathogenic agents can be recognised by toll-like receptors (TLRs). The innate immune system of higher organisms employs TLRs for triggering intracellular signalling and induction of the expression of immune response genes. In this report, we explore the challenges associated with employing TLRs for pathogen detection in water samples. Although methods using TLR expressing cells also have been discussed, the focus of this review is on using TLR proteins as the bio-recognition elements in biosensors.     

The role of biosensors in the detection of emerging infectious diseases

Global biosecurity threats such as the spread of emerging infectious diseases (i.e., avian influenza, SARS, Hendra, Nipah, etc.) and bioterrorism have generated significant interest in recent years. There is considerable effort directed towards understanding and negating the proliferation of infectious diseases. Biosensors are an attractive tool which have the potential to detect the outbreak of a virus and/or disease. Although there is a host of technologies available, either commercially or in the scientific literature, the development of biosensors for the detection of emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) is still in its infancy. There is no doubt that the glucose biosensor, the gene chip, the protein chip, etc. have all played and are still playing a significant role in monitoring various biomolecules. Can biosensors play an important role for the detection of emerging infectious diseases? What does the future hold and which biosensor technology platform is suitable for the real-time detection of infectious diseases? These and many other questions will be addressed in this review. The purpose of this review is to present an overview of biosensors particularly in relation to EIDs. It provides a synopsis of the various types of biosensor technologies that have been used to detect EIDs, and describes some of the technologies behind them in terms of transduction and bioreceptor principles.     

电化学DNA生物传感器*

对特异DNA序列的检测在基因相关疾病的诊断、军事反恐和环境监测等方面均具有非常重要的意义,DNA传感器的研究就是为了满足对特异DNA序列的快速、便捷、高灵敏度和高选择性检测的需要。近年来涌现出了多种传感策略,根据检测方法的不同可以大致分为光学传感器、电化学传感器、声学传感器等。由于电化学检测方法本身所具有的灵敏、快速、低成本和低能耗等特点,电化学DNA传感器已成为一个非常活跃的研究领域并在近几年中得到了快速发展。本文概括了近年来在DNA传感器的重要分支——电化学DNA传感器领域内的一些重要进展,主要包括DNA探针在传感界面上的固定方法和各种电化学DNA杂交信号的检测方法。     

脱氧核糖核酸电化学传感器的原理及其应用

对电化学DNA传感器的组成及其在DNA损伤研究、环境污染监控、病原基因检测、基因疾病诊断和药物机理分析等方面的进行了总结，并对其发展趋势进行了评述。     

Application of nanomaterials in microbial-cell biosensor constructions

Microbial cell biosensors, where cells are in direct connection with a transducer enabling quantitative and qualitative detection of an analyte, are very promising analytical tools applied mainly for assays in the environmental field, food industry or biomedicine. Microbial cell biosensors are an excellent alternative to conventional analytical methods due to their specificity, rapid detection and low cost of analysis. Nowadays, nanomaterials are often used in the construction of biosensors to improve their sensitivity and stability. In this review, the combination of microbial and other individual cells with different nanomaterials (carbon nanotubes, graphene, gold nanoparticles, etc.) for the construction of biosensors is described and their applications are provided as well.     

Recent advances on the development of graphene-based field-effect transistors,electrochemical biosensors and electrochemiluminescence biosensors

Graphene, a honeycomb lattice of carbon material with single-atom-layer structure, demonstrates extraordinary mechanical, thermal, chemical and electronic properties. Thus, it has sparked tremendous interests in various fields, such as energy storage and conversion devices, field-effect transistors (FET), chemical sensors and biosensors. In this review, we will first focus on the synthesis method of graphene and the fabrication strategy of graphene-based materials. Subsequently, the construction of graphene-based biosensors are introduced, in which three kinds of biosensors are discussed in details, including the FET, electrochemical biosensors and electrochemiluminescence (ECL) biosensors. The performances of the state-of-the-art biosensors on the detection of biomolecules are also displayed. Finally, we also highlight some critical challenges remain to be solved and the development in this field for further research.     

Amperometric Biosensors Based on Direct Electron Transfer Enzymes

The accurate determination of analyte concentrations with selective, fast, and robust methods is the key for process control, product analysis, environmental compliance, and medical applications. Enzyme-based biosensors meet these requirements to a high degree and can be operated with simple, cost efficient, and easy to use devices. This review focuses on enzymes capable of direct electron transfer (DET) to electrodes and also the electrode materials which can enable or enhance the DET type bioelectrocatalysis. It presents amperometric biosensors for the quantification of important medical, technical, and environmental analytes and it carves out the requirements for enzymes and electrode materials in DET-based third generation biosensors. This review critically surveys enzymes and biosensors for which DET has been reported. Single- or multi-cofactor enzymes featuring copper centers, hemes, FAD, FMN, or PQQ as prosthetic groups as well as fusion enzymes are presented. Nanomaterials, nanostructured electrodes, chemical surface modifications, and protein immobilization strategies are reviewed for their ability to support direct electrochemistry of enzymes. The combination of both biosensor elements—enzymes and electrodes—is evaluated by comparison of substrate specificity, current density, sensitivity, and the range of detection.     

Recent development in chitosan nanocomposites for surface‐based biosensor applications

Recent years have witnessed ever expanding use of biosensors in the fields of environmental monitoring, homeland security, pharmaceutical, food and bioprocessing, and agricultural industries. To produce effective and reliable biosensors, good quality immobilization of biological recognition elements is critical. Chitosan and its nanocomposites emerge as an excellent immobilization matrix on biosensor surface. As a natural polysaccharide, chitosan has many useful characteristics, such as high permeability and mechanical strength, biocompatibility and non‐toxicity, availability, and low cost. Due to the presence of amino and hydroxyl groups on chitosan, chitosan can easily crosslink with a variety of nanomaterials. This investigation of chitosan nanocomposite‐based biosensors presents recent development and innovations in the preparation of chitosan nanocomposites in coordination with biosensors for various bio‐detection applications, including chitosan nanocomposites formed with carbon nanomaterials, various inorganic and biological complexes. These chitosan nanocomposite based biosensors have demonstrated good sensitivity selectivity and stability for the detection of different types of targets ranging from glucose, proteins, DNAs, small biomolecules to bacteria. It is in our hope that this review will offer guidance for the development of novel biosensors and open up opportunities in the field of biosensor research.     

Microbial biosensors

A microbial biosensor is an analytical device that couples microorganisms with a transducer to enable rapid, accurate and sensitive detection of target analytes in fields as diverse as medicine, environmental monitoring, defense, food processing and safety. The earlier microbial biosensors used the respiratory and metabolic functions of the microorganisms to detect a substance that is either a substrate or an inhibitor of these processes. Recently, genetically engineered microorganisms based on fusing of the lux, gfp or lacZ gene reporters to an inducible gene promoter have been widely applied to assay toxicity and bioavailability. This paper reviews the recent trends in the development and application of microbial biosensors. Current advances and prospective future direction in developing microbial biosensor have also been discussed.     

应用于环境分析的切割RNA的脱氧核酶研究进展

切割RNA的脱氧核酶(RNA cleaving DNAzyme, RCD)可在特定因子辅助下对RNA底物进行剪切,产生可被放大的检测信号,是一种既有信号识别元件又有信号输出单元的理想生物传感器。RCD可化学合成,易于修饰且稳定性高,已被用于构建检测有害物质的生物传感器,在环境监测领域中显示出应用前景;然而,相对于核酸适配体来说,人们对RCD的关注较少。本文针对重金属离子、有害细菌、传染性病毒核酸等环境领域关注的对象,综述了可用于检测这些目标的RCD的研究进展,并讨论其所面临的挑战,以期引起人们对RCD的研究兴趣,开发更多性能优异的RCD用于环境分析。     

New advances in electrochemical biosensors for the detection of toxins: Nanomaterials,magnetic beads and microfluidics systems. A review

The use of nanotechnology in bioanalytical devices has special advantages in the detection of toxins of interest in food safety and environmental applications. The low levels to be detected and the small size of toxins justify the increasing number of publications dealing with electrochemical biosensors, due to their high sensitivity and design versatility. The incorporation of nanomaterials in their development has been exploited to further increase their sensitivity, providing simple and fast devices, with multiplexed capabilities. This paper gives an overview of the electrochemical biosensors that have incorporated carbon and metal nanomaterials in their configurations for the detection of toxins. Biosensing systems based on magnetic beads or integrated into microfluidics systems have also been considered because of their contribution to the development of compact analytical devices. The roles of these materials, the methods used for their incorporation in the biosensor configurations as well as the advantages they provide to the analyses are summarised.     

Micro-algal biosensors

Fighting against water pollution requires the ability to detect pollutants for example herbicides or heavy metals. Micro-algae that live in marine and fresh water offer a versatile solution for the construction of novel biosensors. These photosynthetic microorganisms are very sensitive to changes in their environment, enabling the detection of traces of pollutants. Three groups of micro-algae are described in this paper: chlorophyta, cyanobacteria, and diatoms.     

Colorimetric biosensors based on DNA-nanoparticle conjugates.

In this review, we present an overview of the technologies in colorimetric biosensors based on DNA-nanoparticle conjugates. Two types of DNA-nanoparticles aggregation assays are summarized. One of the methods relies on cross-linking of the gold nanoparticle (GNP) by hybridization. The crosslinking system was used not only to detect target DNA sequences, but also to detect metal ions or small molecules which were recognized by DNAzymes. The other method is the GNP non-crosslinking system. This approach shows high performance in the detection of single nucleotide polymorphisms. These methods do not need special equipment and open up a new possibility of point-of-care diagnoses.     

Microcantilever biosensors for chemicals and bioorganisms

In the last fifteen years, microcantilevers (MCLs) have been emerging as a sensitive tool for the detection of chemicals and bioorganisms. Because of their small size, lightweight, and high surface-to-volume ratio, MCL-based sensors improve our capability to detect and identify biological agents by orders of magnitude. A biosensor is a device for the detection of an analyte that combines a biological component with a physicochemical detector component. The MCL biosensors have recently been reviewed in several papers. All of these papers were organized based on the sensing biological elements (antibody, enzyme, proteins, etc.) for recognition of analytes. In this review, we intend to summarize the microcantilever biosensors in a format of each specific chemical and bioorganism species to make information on individual biosensors easily accessible. We did this to aid researchers to locate relevant references.     

Functionalized carbon nanotubes and nanofibers for biosensing applications

This review summarizes recent advances in electrochemical biosensors based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and carbon nanofibers (CNFs) with an emphasis on applications of CNTs. CNTs and CNFs have unique electric, electrocatalytic and mechanical properties, which make them efficient materials for developing electrochemical biosensors.We discuss functionalizing CNTs for biosensors. We review electrochemical biosensors based on CNTs and their various applications (e.g., measurement of small biological molecules and environmental pollutants, detection of DNA, and immunosensing of disease biomarkers). Moreover, we outline the development of electrochemical biosensors based on CNFs and their applications. Finally, we discuss some future applications of CNTs.