Abstract
The emergence of highly pathogenic and deadly human coronaviruses, namely SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV within the past two decades and currently SARS-CoV-2, have resulted in millions of human death across the world. In addition, other human viral diseases, such as mosquito borne-viral diseases and blood-borne viruses, also contribute to a higher risk of death in severe cases. To date, there is no specific drug or medicine available to cure these human viral diseases. Therefore, the early and rapid detection without compromising the test accuracy is required in order to provide a suitable treatment for the containment of the diseases. Recently, nanomaterials-based biosensors have attracted enormous interest due to their biological activities and unique sensing properties, which enable the detection of analytes such as nucleic acid (DNA or RNA), aptamers, and proteins in clinical samples. In addition, the advances of nanotechnologies also enable the development of miniaturized detection systems for point-of-care (POC) biosensors, which could be a new strategy for detecting human viral diseases. The detection of virus-specific genes by using single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) probes has become a particular interest due to their higher sensitivity and specificity compared to immunological methods based on antibody or antigen for early diagnosis of viral infection. Hence, this review has been developed to provide an overview of the current development of nanoparticles-based biosensors that target pathogenic RNA viruses, toward a robust and effective detection strategy of the existing or newly emerging human viral diseases such as SARS-CoV-2. This review emphasizes the nanoparticles-based biosensors developed using noble metals such as gold (Au) and silver (Ag) by virtue of their powerful characteristics as a signal amplifier or enhancer in the detection of nucleic acid. In addition, this review provides a broad knowledge with respect to several analytical methods involved in the development of nanoparticles-based biosensors for the detection of viral nucleic acid using both optical and electrochemical techniques.
Highlights
The steric stabilization approach is not sensitive to the change in ionic strength but is affected by molecular size and capping density. The polymer ligands such as polyethylene glycol adsorbs to the nanoparticles to form a physical barrier, which can prevent the aggregation of nanoparticles in the steric stabilization [66]
In the presence of complementary DNA (cDNA), the interaction of acpcPNA and DNA led to the depletion of acpcPNA-AgNPs interaction, which changed the color from red to yellow again
The application of nanotechnology in the biosensor has contributed to the increase of sensitivity and specificity of the viral nucleic acid detection
Summary
The problem of rapidly mutating viruses, which is common among the emerging viruses, is adding more difficulties to win the battle against pathogenic viruses [17] It is crucial in our health-care system to have a rapid, early, accurate, and on-site diagnosis to contain the spread of the emerging viral diseases with the proper treatment services. A general overview on the different types of MNPs-based biosensors for pathogenic RNA virus including SARS-CoV-2 as well as optical and electrochemical transducers associated with biosensor analytical detection strategies are discussed in detail. This manuscript is differed from the previously published reviews as it focuses more on the development of Au/Ag. NPs-based biosensors to detect the pathogenic RNA virus. The last section is provided with the future aspects and recommendations toward a robust and effective detection strategy of the current pathogenic virus, SARS-CoV-2
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