Abstract
Nanotechnology has played a crucial role in the development of biosensors over the past decade. The development, testing, optimization, and validation of new biosensors has become a highly interdisciplinary effort involving experts in chemistry, biology, physics, engineering, and medicine. The sensitivity, the specificity and the reproducibility of biosensors have improved tremendously as a result of incorporating nanomaterials in their design. In general, nanomaterials-based electrochemical immunosensors amplify the sensitivity by facilitating greater loading of the larger sensing surface with biorecognition molecules as well as improving the electrochemical properties of the transducer. The most common types of nanomaterials and their properties will be described. In addition, the utilization of nanomaterials in immunosensors for biomarker detection will be discussed since these biosensors have enormous potential for a myriad of clinical uses. Electrochemical immunosensors provide a specific and simple analytical alternative as evidenced by their brief analysis times, inexpensive instrumentation, lower assay cost as well as good portability and amenability to miniaturization. The role nanomaterials play in biosensors, their ability to improve detection capabilities in low concentration analytes yielding clinically useful data and their impact on other biosensor performance properties will be discussed. Finally, the most common types of electroanalytical detection methods will be briefly touched upon.
Highlights
Improvements in the early detection and monitoring of certain diseases have resulted in a shift from treatment-based medicine towards preventive medicine
Biomarkers can be divided into three categories including: (1) diagnostic biomarkers which assist in early detection of a disease; (2) prognostic biomarkers, which help assess the malignant potential of tumors; and (3) predictive biomarkers, which can be used to differentiate between various cancers and help in designing therapy plans for the patient [41]
A flat electrode consisting of three Pt electrodes detects the current produced by the oxidation of hydrogen peroxide which is previously produced by the glucose oxidase enzyme label in the presence of glucose substrate
Summary
Improvements in the early detection and monitoring of certain diseases have resulted in a shift from treatment-based medicine towards preventive medicine. Detection and diagnosis of certain types of cancer, for example, has become possible through the use of biomarkers such as CA125 and highly sensitive biosensor devices and assays. Biomarker detection has made the development of personalized treatment plans for certain diseases possible. A major reason why immunosensors and immunoassays are so popular in clinical analysis is the characteristic and exceptionally high selectivity, sensitivity and specificity that an antibody exhibits for its target antigen [2] For this reason, particle-based immunomagnetic assays have been popular in biomarker detection for some time. Use of biosensors in detecting disease biomarkers will be the primary focus of this article
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