Technological Advances in Biosensors for the Detection of Health Biomarkers

An inflammatory response is a complex biological process that occurs when inflammatory cells react to damaged cells, allergens, or infectious agents. The presence of inflammation has been associated with a number of chronic diseases, including multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, atherosclerosis, and cancer. There are several biomarkers for inflammation, including ferritin, interleukin-6, procalcitonin, and C-reactive protein. Since it is inevitable that these biological markers will be used more frequently in the course of patient treatment and clinical diagnosis, it has become increasingly important to develop advanced technologies capable of providing sensitive, selective, accurate, rapid, and cost-effective diagnostic results. Among the analytical methods employed for the detection of inflammation biomarkers, sensors based on optical and electrochemical platforms are regarded as potent analytical tools owing to their high selectivity and sensitivity, as well as their ability to be scaled down and the development of portable sensing devices, which are especially useful for diagnostic purposes. This book chapter is intended to (1) provide an overview of recent developments in the detection of inflammatory biomarkers in biological fluid samples using electrochemical and optical platforms, (2) summarize the electrochemical point-of-care testing of inflammatory biomarkers associated with cancer, neurological disorders, and COVID-19, (3) explore the significance of urine and saliva for the detection of inflammatory biomarkers, with a focus on novel biosensors developed over the past decade for the detection of inflammatory biomarkers in saliva and urine samples and (4) outline the challenges of detecting inflammatory biomarkers in complex samples, as well as the current efforts to construct advanced biosensors with enhanced analytical response characteristics.