Development in Biosensor-Based Diagnostics for Bacterial Diseases: Opportunities and Challenges

The recurring upsurge in mortality and morbidity intimidates the detection of bacterial pathogens crucial in the disciplines of food safety, health care, and medicine. There is an essential requirement to improve existing antimicrobial therapeutic strategies due to exponential growth in antimicrobial resistance and the frozen pool for antibiotic medication, and therefore accurate and rapid bacterial identification is critical. Several approaches like polymerase chain reactions, immunoassays, and culture procedures—the three current gold standards for detecting bacteria—have the conspicuous drawbacks of prolonged turnaround times and poor accuracy. Hence, their potential usage as point-of-care devices is substantially constrained. Current-edge detection methods have been recommended and constructed over the period to address these shortcomings. Biosensors are one of those pioneering detection tools that are capable of identifying a variety of biomolecules, which are extensively utilized for the effective detection of pathogens. This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of several biosensing systems with a greater emphasis on technological advancements in improving detection sensitivity and specificity. The mechanism of detection along with the advantages and disadvantages of each kind of biosensor is carefully discussed, with the variables impacting their perspective as potential point-of-care devices.