This Special Issue entitled “Women in Biosensors” has been launched to celebrate and highlight the achievements of women in the biosensors research area, presenting biosensor-related work performed ...in groups leaded by women scientists ...
This study describes the advancements made over the last five years in the development of electrochemical sensors and biosensors for acetaminophen detection. This study reviews the different ...configurations based on unmodified and chemically modified carbon nanotubes and graphene. The influence of various modifiers on the two types of materials is presented along with their role on the enhancement of the selectivity and sensitivity of (bio)sensors. The review is focused on a comparative description of the applications of carbon-based nanomaterials towards acetaminophen detection and presents the results in a critical manner.
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•State of the art in (bio)sensors with nanomaterials for acetaminophen detection.•Electrocatalytic effects and increase of the electroactive surface were described.•CNT and graphenes proved to electrocatalyse acetaminophen detection.•Critical review of the newest achievements in acetaminophen electrochemical detection.
Saliva is a complex matrix that reflects hormonal, immunological, metabolic and nutritional state of a person. Moreover, it is considered the most appropriate biological fluid for scientific ...investigations regarding ethics. Saliva chemistry is an emerging field and mostly employed in toxicology and forensic medicine for analysing and detecting user drug addiction and alcohol abuse by mapping the blood and saliva data. The advantages of salivary testing include helping in the diagnosis, prognosis and surveillance of disease, alongside with the non-invasive and ease of collection properties.
The need for fast, cost-effective and reliable methods for saliva investigation has led to high technological advances in developing sensing tools. Hence, increasing number of papers are reporting diseases signalling salivary biomarkers for local or systemic pathologies like oral cancer, endocrine and immunologic pathologies, infectious and neurological diseases etc.
This review focuses on the recent advances and main challenges employed in the detection and quantification of salivary biomarkers by separation, immunological and electrochemical techniques and highlight the future perspectives of the point-of-care devices in diagnosing local or systemic pathologies.
•Saliva is a complex matrix that reflects hormonal, emotional, immunological, metabolic and nutritional state of a person.•The employment of analytical techniques for the salivary biomarkers detection in local/ systemic pathologies are summarized.•Wearable biosensors were developed for real-time non-invasive saliva monitoring of biomarkers to diagnose several diseases.
Neurotransmitters are endogenous chemical messengers which play an important role in many of the brain functions, abnormal levels being correlated with physical, psychotic and neurodegenerative ...diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Huntington's disease. Therefore, their sensitive and robust detection is of great clinical significance. Electrochemical methods have been intensively used in the last decades for neurotransmitter detection, outclassing more complicated analytical techniques such as conventional spectrophotometry, chromatography, fluorescence, flow injection, and capillary electrophoresis. In this manuscript, the most successful and promising electrochemical enzyme-free and enzymatic sensors for neurotransmitter detection are reviewed. Focusing on the activity of worldwide researchers mainly during the last ten years (2010-2019), without pretending to be exhaustive, we present an overview of the progress made in sensing strategies during this time. Particular emphasis is placed on nanostructured-based sensors, which show a substantial improvement of the analytical performances. This review also examines the progress made in biosensors for neurotransmitter measurements
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During the last few decades, magnetic nanoparticles have been evaluated as promising materials in the field of cancer detection, screening, and treatment. Early diagnosis and screening of cancer may ...be achieved using magnetic nanoparticles either within the magnetic resonance imaging technique and/or sensing systems. These sensors are designed to selectively detect specific biomarkers, compounds that can be related to the onset or evolution of cancer, during and after the treatment of this widespread disease. Some of the particular properties of magnetic nanoparticles are extensively exploited in cancer therapy as drug delivery agents to selectively target the envisaged location by tailored in vivo manipulation using an external magnetic field. Furthermore, individualized treatment with antineoplastic drugs may be combined with magnetic resonance imaging to achieve an efficient therapy. This review summarizes the studies about the implications of magnetic nanoparticles in cancer diagnosis, treatment and drug delivery as well as prospects for future development and challenges of magnetic nanoparticles in the field of oncology.
In this work, we propose an electrochemical DNA aptasensor for the detection of profenofos, an organophosphorus pesticide, based on a competitive format and disposable graphite screen-printed ...electrodes (GSPEs). A thiol-tethered DNA capture probe, which results to be complementary to the chosen aptamer sequence, was immobilised on gold nanoparticles/polyaniline composite film-modified electrodes (AuNPs/PANI/GSPE). Different profenofos solutions containing a fixed amount of the biotinylated DNA aptamer were dropped onto the realized aptasensors. The hybridisation reaction was measured using a streptavidin-alkaline phosphatase enzyme conjugate, which catalyses the hydrolysis of 1-naphthyl -phosphate. The 1-naphtol enzymatic product was detected by means of differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). The aptasensor showed itself to work as a signal off sensor, according to the competitive format used. A dose response curve was obtained between 0.10 μM and 10 μM with a detection limit of 0.27 μM.
Food safety and quality control pose serious issues to food industry and public health domains, in general, with direct effects on consumers. Any physical, chemical, or biological unexpected or ...unidentified food constituent may exhibit harmful effects on people and animals from mild to severe reactions. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), unsafe foodstuffs are especially dangerous for infants, young children, elderly, and chronic patients. It is imperative to continuously develop new technologies to detect foodborne pathogens and contaminants in order to aid the strengthening of healthcare and economic systems. In recent years, peptide-based sensors gained much attention in the field of food research as an alternative to immuno-, apta-, or DNA-based sensors. This review presents an overview of the electrochemical biosensors using peptides as molecular bio-recognition elements published mainly in the last decade, highlighting their possible application for rapid, non-destructive, and in situ analysis of food samples. Comparison with peptide-based optical and piezoelectrical sensors in terms of analytical performance is presented. Methods of foodstuffs pretreatment are also discussed.
A new customized platform based on electrochemically generated polypyrrole nanoparticles decorated with gold nanoparticles was used for the highly selective and sensitive electrochemical detection of ...serotonin. The composite surface manifested improved properties attributed to both modifiers: an increased active surface area due to the polypyrrole nanostructure and a catalytic effect towards analyte detection from the noble metal. The material was applied to the detection of serotonin in serum samples, in the presence of interfering species. The analytical performance was 320 times better than that of the bare electrode, underlining the advantages of this tailored hybrid surface.
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•Nanoplatform based on Ppy and Au NPs for highly sensitive detection of serotonin•The sensitive platform was produced electrochemically in a simple, two-step procedure.•Synergistic effect of both modifiers towards serotonin detection.•The platform is highly selective for serotonin, even in the presence of interferents.
Vancomycin (VAN) is a glycopeptide antibiotic, active against Gram-positive bacteria resistant to other antibiotics. VAN therefore needs to be monitored for maximum efficacy and minimum toxicity. ...Electrochemical sensors can be used for this purpose, using the direct electrochemical signal of VAN. Due to its molecular complexity and the need for analysis from complex matrices, the electrochemical detection of VAN requires the development of a complex electrochemical fingerprint (CEF), which covers a large variety of possible combinations of samples and interferents at concentrations of interest.
The objective of this study was to develop a CEF for VAN, involving a battery of tests and the elucidation of the mechanism of anodic oxidation of VAN, using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass-spectrometric analysis of the products obtained after small-scale electrolysis.
A CEF for VAN was obtained, describing the electrochemical behavior of VAN at different commercially available screen-printed electrodes, with several electrolytes, considering successive analyses, after simple pretreatments, and examining both anodic and cathodic peaks. The concept was successfully applied to analysis of VAN in real samples and in the presence of some common interferents. Furthermore, a two-step combined electrochemical–chemical mechanism was proposed for the electrooxidation of VAN.
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•Therapeutic drug monitoring of vancomycin is needed for maximum efficacy.•A battery of tests with different commercially available SPEs was performed.•Both anodic and cathodic electrochemical analyses were performed.•A complex 3D electrochemical fingerprint for vancomycin was produced.•A mechanism for anodic oxidation of vancomycin was proposed.
Infection represents a major complication that can affect wound healing in any type of wound, especially in chronic ones. There are currently certain limitations to the methods that are used for ...establishing a clinical diagnosis of wound infection. Thus, new, rapid and easy-to-use strategies for wound infection diagnosis need to be developed. To this aim, wearable sensors for infection diagnosis have been recently developed. These sensors are incorporated into the wound dressings that are used to treat and protect the wound, and are able to detect certain biomarkers that can be correlated with the presence of wound infection. Among these biomarkers, the most commonly used ones are pH and uric acid, but a plethora of others (lactic acid, oxygenation, inflammatory mediators, bacteria metabolites or bacteria) have also been detected using wearable sensors. In this work, an overview of the main types of wearable sensors for wound infection detection will be provided. These sensors will be divided into electrochemical, colorimetric and fluorimetric sensors and the examples will be presented and discussed comparatively.