Mechanisms for Analytes Biosensing: Platforms from Single Use to Intermittent or Continuous Monitoring

Concerns about human health control and monitoring are one of the most significant threats that humanity faces on a global scale, and it is for that reason that sick people are usually diagnosed in health centers or hospitals with high-tech instruments that are usually found in centralized laboratories; however, these traditional detecting techniques require invasive methods for sample extraction, long time responses and qualified staff to perform the analysis to have an accurate result; consequently, the diagnosis involves huge expenses and, more worrying, in the meantime the deterioration of the patient is progressing. For all of that, significant research is growing quickly to develop simple, fast, minimum-invasive, and cost-effective probes and devices for the diagnostic of serious clinical problems, dysfunctions, or diseases, as well as early tracking to avoid severe consequences. Personalized biosensors are those that can be used quickly and by clinical staff who are not trained in clinical laboratory sciences, giving medical workers rapid results that can provide diagnostic, prognostic and help them make decisions of the strategic patient treatment. This chapter in this regard is not only seeking for bring an overview of the key advances of biosensors from the past 5 years but also is focusing on the analysis of the continuous and intermittent monitoring of different health biomarkers. Real-time continuous analyte monitoring systems automatically measure the analyte, while the intermittent-scanning analyte monitoring systems may require the person using the system to scan the sensor to display the analyte amount detected at a certain time or the restoration of the sensing platform. The information extracted from each operation mode can be finally crucial for the family doctor or medical specialist’s decision for an early medical response or clinical treatment point of view. This chapter will discuss the advantages of each operating mode in terms of how to interpret the biosensing mechanisms, fabrication, accuracy, lifetime, and reusability. The authors critically review different studies involving biosensors based on the electrochemical signal transduction, along with someone based on optical and colorimetric sensing for some targets of interest such as protons (pH), lactate/lactic acid, cortisol, and glucose. Finally, the goal of the chapter is to pose new questions and forecast near-future perspectives and challenges related to personalized biosensors, highlighting the operating modes.