Sensors & diagnostics最新文献

Aerogels have gained attention for their unique physicochemical attributes, including their lightweight structure, adjustable porosity, expansive surface area with customizable functionalities, and notable biocompatibilities. A crucial factor in employing aerogels within biosensors is the improvement in sensitivity, selectivity, and response speed due to their effective interactions with biological targets. Recent advancements in aerogel synthesis, particularly with the incorporation of 0D, 1D, and 2D materials, have significantly enhanced the performance of aerogel-based sensors through a synergistic effect. An increasing array of aerogels has been documented for biosensing purposes and as electrode materials in smart sensors that aim to detect biomolecules for biomedical applications. Various synthesis techniques for aerogels and their composites have emerged. Aerogel composites that feature nanoparticles and 2D/3D materials are noted for their relevance in sensing applications. Discussions surrounding these materials often focus on their use in biosensors, smart sensors, microfluidics, and innovative devices. This review seeks to underline new trends in aerogel technology for biosensing applications, concentrating on advancements in synthesis methods, the creation of novel aerogel composites, and aerogel-based sensors aimed at biosensing, biomarker detection, smart sensors, wearable technology, and microfluidic devices as well as the biocompatibility and sustainability of aerogels and their composites. The review also highlights how aerogels enhance the selectivity, sensitivity, and efficiency of biosensors. The latest developments in smart aerogels are opening opportunities for real-time biomolecule monitoring. Additionally, their integration with microfluidic devices has led to the creation of portable, cost-effective lab-on-a-chip devices, which support rapid diagnostics in cutting-edge biosensing technologies.

In this research, a hierarchically structured, flower-like ZnO material was successfully synthesized via a solvothermal approach. Subsequently, silver (Ag) nanoparticles were deposited onto the ZnO flowers through ultraviolet light reduction, yielding a highly efficient Ag/ZnO composite material. Notably, the 3 at% Ag/ZnO composite demonstrated a remarkably enhanced response to 100 ppm H₂S at a relatively low operating temperature of 92 °C, reaching 430.0, which is significantly higher than the 157.3 observed for the pristine ZnO material. Furthermore, the detection limit for H₂S was dramatically lowered from 0.05 ppm to a mere 1 ppb. The findings of this research suggest that the incorporation of Ag nanoparticles substantially ameliorates the H₂S sensing capabilities of the pure ZnO material. To delve deeper into the underlying mechanisms, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was utilized to explore the interaction between the Ag/ZnO sensor and H₂S gas. This analysis provided valuable insights into the reasons behind the observed enhancement in gas sensing performance, shedding light on the synergistic effects of the Ag nanoparticles and the ZnO matrix in the composite material.

Tuberculosis (TB) treatment is hampered by the pharmacokinetic variability of the cornerstone drug, rifampicin (RIF). This can lead to sub-therapeutic dosing, treatment failure, and the subsequent emergence of drug resistance. Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is essential but is often inaccessible in high-burden, resource-limited settings due to its reliance on slow, expensive, and lab-based techniques like HPLC, while point-of-care systems offer a rapid and low-cost alternative. To address this critical gap, we have developed a low-cost, rapid, and scalable electrochemical biosensor for point-of-care RIF monitoring. The sensor platform integrates a highly selective molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) with a highly porous gold (HPG) nanomaterial on a disposable printed circuit board (PCB) electrode, costing approximately £0.09 per unit. The HPG layer significantly enhances the electroactive surface area and provides exceptional resistance to biofouling, a critical feature for clinical utility. This allows the sensor to operate directly in complex biological matrices, demonstrating robust performance in undiluted human serum. The sensor achieves a clinically relevant detection range of 8–24 μg mL⁻¹ with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.848 μg mL⁻¹ and a limit of quantification (LOQ) of 1.31 μg mL⁻¹. This work presents a significant step towards democratizing TDM, offering a practical tool to personalize TB therapy and combat drug resistance at the frontline of patient care.

The critical role of non-neuronal acetylcholine (ACh) as a biomarker, driving cancer proliferation and signaling neurodegenerative decline, demands sensitive, non-enzymatic diagnostic tools for early detection. This work presents a highly innovative non-enzymatic electrochemical sensor for the direct, ultra-sensitive quantification of ACh. The sensor is engineered by electropolymerizing a molecularly imprinted polypyrrole (MIP) matrix, embedded with uniquely structured ZnO·CuO nanoleaves (NLs), onto a disposable pencil graphite electrode. Computational modeling at the DFT level reveals strong non-covalent interactions that create high-fidelity recognition sites for ACh within the polymer. Comprehensive characterization (XRD, FTIR, FESEM, micro-CT, DLS) validates the successful synthesis of the nanocomposite and the precise formation of imprinting cavities. The optimized sensor achieves an exceptional detection limit of 2.2 pM and a broad linear dynamic range from 100 pM to 100 mM, ranking it among the most sensitive ACh sensors reported to date. It exhibits outstanding selectivity against key interferents and reliably detects ACh in human serum samples with excellent recovery (98.0–102.2%). This highly sensitive, robust, and cost-effective MIP-ZnO·CuO NL platform demonstrates immense potential for point-of-care clinical diagnostics in oncology and neurology.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses an urgent global health threat, driving the need for rapid and accurate antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST). Traditional phenotypic AST methods remain the clinical gold standard but are hindered by prolonged turnaround times and labor-intensive procedures. Microfluidic technologies have emerged as transformative platforms, enabling miniaturized, high-throughput, and integrated phenotypic AST workflows with accelerated result delivery. This review comprehensively summarizes recent advances in microfluidic phenotypic AST, categorizing platforms by cultivation strategies—such as static chambers, flow chambers, SlipChip variants, and hybrid droplet-chamber systems—and surveying diverse signal detection modalities including fluorescence, label-free imaging, Raman, electrical, and mechanical readouts, each offering distinct advantages and limitations. Key innovations such as concentration gradient generation, digital single-cell manipulation, and AI-enhanced image analysis have significantly improved sensitivity, speed, and clinical applicability. However, widespread adoption remains challenged by sample-to-result integration, slow-growing pathogens, interference from residual antibiotics, and the lack of robust standardization. We further discuss emerging solutions, including automated sample preparation, multimodal detection, and computational data fusion, and outline future opportunities for translating microfluidic phenotypic AST into routine diagnostics. Collectively, these advances hold substantial promise for combating AMR by enabling personalized, rapid, and actionable antimicrobial therapy.

Microfluidic technology can expedite nucleic acid testing by converting the functions of bulky laboratory instruments and protracted bench methodologies into easy-to-use and inexpensive miniaturised systems without compromising speed and reliability. We developed a lab-on-a-chip (LOC) platform that integrates a dimethyl adipimidate (DMA)-based functionalised silica DNA isolation and pre-concentration method with a rapid and real-time loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) for detecting domoic acid-producing phytoplankton, Pseudo-nitzschia. An optimised design of a lab on a chip extraction module achieved a maximum DNA capture capacity of 61.73 ± 0.98 ng μL⁻¹. The DMA-based method reduced reagent costs per sample by 97% compared to a commercial nucleic acid isolation kit. A subsequent on-chip LAMP process was capable of sensitively quantifying cytochrome P450 homologous to the dabD gene, coding for a component of the domoic acid toxin production pathway, with a limit-of-detection of 10 cells per mL. LAMP-based detection of the target gene was achieved using dry-preserved reagents with a shelf-life of five months without refrigeration. There was no significant difference in assay performance between the preserved LAMP and freshly prepared LAMP mixtures. The total analysis time at the LOD of 10 cells per mL, from sample to result, was achieved within one hour. Our results demonstrate the long-term stability of assay reagents, rapid turnaround, and cost-effectiveness, offering a simple and economical approach to environmental monitoring and environmental bio-hazard diagnostics.

Cholesterol, a sterol lipid, is vital for various biological phenomena encompassing metabolism and cell functioning. Nevertheless, drastic changes in cholesterol levels will lead to severe cardiovascular disorders. The development of point-of-care technology plays a prominent role in frequent and pinpoint monitoring of cholesterol changes. The introduction of enzymatic biosensors revolutionized cholesterol detection; however, these sensors face significant challenges, including restricted stability, high expense, and sensitivity to environmental conditions. This review highlights the advancements in non-enzymatic electrochemical cholesterol biosensors, focusing on the application of novel materials, including metals and metal oxides, carbon and graphene-based materials, polymeric materials, MOFs, MXenes, photoelectrochemical materials, and advanced materials and composites, to enhance sensitivity, selectivity, and stability. Particular emphasis is placed on electrochemical techniques, material modifications, and their influence on sensing performance. For ease of comprehension and evaluation, standard statistics have been presented in a tabular format. Despite significant advancements, challenges such as miniaturization, reproducibility, and real-sample analysis persist. This review underscores the potential of nonenzymatic electrochemical biosensors to transform biosensing diagnostics and emphasizes the need for continued innovation in materials science and device integration.

The rapid, accurate, and portable detection of biomarkers plays a central role in clinical diagnostics, food safety, and environmental monitoring. However, conventional molecular diagnostic techniques are often limited by bulky instrumentation, labor-intensive protocols, and complex manipulation. The integration of the CRISPR–Cas system with microfluidics offers a novel diagnostic strategy to overcome these challenges, leveraging the remarkable specificity and sensitivity of CRISPR–Cas along with the miniaturization, integration, high-throughput, and automation of microfluidics. This review aims at summarizing the recent development of microfluidics-integrated CRISPR–Cas systems for biomarker detection, with a specific focus on the advances made over the past five years. Following a snapshot of the working mechanism of the CRISPR–Cas system in diagnostics and the diverse microfluidic setups, we comprehensively overview the applications of this technique for the detection of various biomarkers. Finally, persisting challenges and future trends are critically discussed. Overall, this review demonstrates the potential of microfluidics-integrated CRISPR–Cas systems in facilitating truly rapid, sample-to-answer point-of-care diagnostics, which are essential for global disease surveillance and accessible healthcare.

Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers in men, with the PSA (prostate-specific antigen) test serving as a cornerstone for its monitoring and early detection. This study describes the development and evaluation of an innovative quantitative lateral flow assay (LFA) utilizing luminescence from Bright-Dtech™ lanthanide nanoparticles to enhance the sensitivity and accuracy of PSA measurement. The optimized LFA demonstrated high sensitivity and reproducibility, with a detection limit of 15 pg mL⁻¹ in buffer (120 pg mL⁻¹ in 1 : 8 diluted serum), and a quantifiable range of 0.155 to 27.5 ng mL⁻¹ in buffer (1.24 to 221 ng mL⁻¹ in 1 : 8 diluted serum). This method was successfully applied for PSA detection in clinical serum samples, and it showed excellent correlation with a quantitative diagnostic reference method. The developed LFA offers a significant advancement in quantitative PSA testing, providing a rapid and cost-effective in vitro diagnostic solution. Furthermore, it showcases the potential of Bright-Dtech™ technology in lateral flow test design. With exceptional brightness and long luminescence lifetime, lanthanide nanoparticles effectively address key challenges in LFA sensitivity and quantification, paving the way for broader applications in diagnostic testing.

Traditional enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) rely on horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-conjugated antibodies to generate a colorimetric response proportional to target antibody concentration. However, spectrophotometric quantification requires expensive benchtop equipment, limiting its usability for frequent, population-scale immunity screening. To overcome this barrier, we previously developed LC15, an antibody–invertase fusion protein that catalyzes sucrose-to-glucose conversion in proportion to antibody levels. This fusion protein enabled antibody quantification using handheld glucometers – affordable, widely available devices already integrated with telehealth infrastructure. Unlike commercial ELISAs, which report relative antibody titers, LC15 facilitates absolute antibody quantification (μg mL⁻¹), enhancing applications such as epidemiological monitoring and convalescent plasma dosing. To increase the number of clinical samples processed in a single run of the assay, in this study we transitioned from poly(methyl methacrylate) strips to microwell plates, optimizing pH conditions and reagent concentrations. This adaptation yielded similar sensitivity to the original strip-based assay, but with a 5-fold reduction in reagent consumption and in plasma, as opposed to serum used for the previous study. Using the SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain (RBD) as the antigen, we applied LC15 in a 96-well plate format to screen 72 clinical samples in triplicate for anti-RBD antibodies. A blinded comparison with commercial ELISAs demonstrated strong linear correlation (R² = 0.85) over four orders of magnitude in concentration. By combining accuracy with accessibility, this approach has the potential to facilitate population-level immunity assessments, supporting rapid public health responses in future outbreaks.