Abstract
The growing availability of biomarker panels for molecular diagnostics is leading to an increasing need for fast and sensitive biosensing technologies that are applicable to point-of-care testing. In that regard, homogeneous measurement principles are especially relevant as they usually do not require extensive sample preparation procedures, thus reducing the total analysis time and maximizing ease-of-use. In this review, we focus on homogeneous biosensors for the in vitro detection of biomarkers. Within this broad range of biosensors, we concentrate on methods that apply magnetic particle labels. The advantage of such methods lies in the added possibility to manipulate the particle labels by applied magnetic fields, which can be exploited, for example, to decrease incubation times or to enhance the signal-to-noise-ratio of the measurement signal by applying frequency-selective detection. In our review, we discriminate the corresponding methods based on the nature of the acquired measurement signal, which can either be based on magnetic or optical detection. The underlying measurement principles of the different techniques are discussed, and biosensing examples for all techniques are reported, thereby demonstrating the broad applicability of homogeneous in vitro biosensing based on magnetic particle label actuation.
Highlights
In the recent years, the growing availability and technical maturity of high-throughput technologies for molecular sample analysis has led to an ever increasing number of biomarkers reported in the literature [1,2]
Another basic distinction can be drawn between biosensors that make use of heterogeneous measurement principles and those that measure signals generated within the entire homogeneous sample solution phase
We focus on homogeneous biosensors that make use of magnetic particle labels
Summary
The growing availability and technical maturity of high-throughput technologies for molecular sample analysis has led to an ever increasing number of biomarkers reported in the literature [1,2]. The present review focuses on methods that are employed in vitro Another basic distinction can be drawn between biosensors that make use of heterogeneous measurement principles and those that measure signals generated within the entire homogeneous sample solution phase. While heterogeneous assay principles generally display high sensitivity and wide dynamic range, labor intensive sample preparation steps that usually comprise multiple washing and incubation steps are disadvantages that limit their applicability [28]. The current review focuses on in vitro homogeneous biosensing approaches that make use of magnetic particle labels and magnetic actuation. We first review methods that detect the particle labels magnetically (Section 2), and later move on to optical detection methods (Section 3)
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