Paving the way towards continuous biosensing by implementing affinity-based nanoswitches on state-dependent readout platforms.

Abstract

Continuous biosensors provide real-time information about biochemical processes occurring in the environment of interest and are therefore highly desirable in research, diagnostics and industrial settings. Although remarkable progress has been made in the field of biosensing, most biosensors still rely on batch processes and, thus, are not suited to perform continuous measurements. Recently, however, it has been shown that by combining affinity-based nanoswitches with state-dependent readout platforms, the necessity for batch processes can be overcome and affinity-based continuous biosensing can be achieved. In this review, we first provide an overview of affinity-based continuous biosensing and discuss the required components to achieve this goal. More specifically, we summarize the strategies that have been applied to develop and tune both protein and nucleic acid-based switches, as well as readout strategies that can be applied in combination with the former. Afterwards, biosensors in which both elements were already integrated and hence enabled continuous measurements are reviewed. We also discuss the challenges and opportunities associated with each approach and therefore believe this review can help to encourage and guide future research towards continuous biosensing.