Development of biosensors for the detection of COVID-19

The world is currently challenging with the COVID-19 pandemic due to the SARS-CoV-2, a new member of coronaviruses which emerged in late December 2019. The rapid transmission of the disease made it a global concern that has attracted worldwide attention. As there have been no promising treatments or specific vaccines yet, the most important key to control the pandemic is an early diagnosis. Accordingly, performing diagnostic tests accelerates case detection and prevents further transmissions. Current available tests such as quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction have some limitations. Therefore, new strategies should be developed for accurate and rapid detection of COVID-19, a life-threatening disease. Biosensing is one of the novel approaches for the SARS-CoV-2 detection, having the potential for rapid and early diagnosis to control this pandemic. RNA, antigens, and antibodies are the main targets in COVID-19 biosensors. Although there have been limited reported studies of COVID-19 biosensing strategies, this review summarized the recent progress in this field.