Table 1.
Characteristics of nanomaterials enabled biosensing for SARS-CoV-2 virus detection.
| Core nanomaterials | Biomarker | Principle | Sample analytes/type of sample | Characteristics/remarks | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gold NPs | Thiol-c-DNA receptors/nucleic acid | Combined effect of plasmonic photothermal (PPT) and localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) mediated biosensing | ORF1ab-COVID, and E genes from SARS-CoV-2; viral sequences including RdRp-COVID | Low detection limit: 0.22 ± 0.08 pM [2.26 × 107 copies of the RdRp-COVID sequence whereas ~2.26 × 104 copies of the entire RNA strands from SARS-CoV-2]; detection range: 0.1 pM to 1 μM | [Qiu et al., 2020] |
| Gold NPs | Thiol-modified antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) specific forN-gene (nucleocapsid phosphoprotein) of SARS-CoV-2 | Plasmonic effect based colorimetric biosensing | RNA [N-gene (nucleocapsid phosphoprotein)of SARS-CoV-2]; oropharyngeal swab | Detection limit: 0.18 ng/μL; detection range: 0.2–3 ng/μL; assay time was found to be 10 min | [Moitra et al., 2020] |
| Gold NPs | Oligo probe | Plasmonic effect based colorimetric biosensing | RNA [RdRp gene of SARS-CoV-2];human nasopharyngeal sample | Detection limit: 0.5 ng; total assay time was found to be ~30 min | [Kumar et al., 2020] |
| Gold NPs(colloid) | Recombinant antigen of SARS-CoV-2 and rabbit-IgG | Colorimetric dependent lateral flow immunoassay based biosensing | IgM and IgG antibodies; human blood sample | Assay time was found to be 15 min | [Li et al., 2020b] |
| Lanthanide-doped polysterene NPs | Protein [mouse anti-human IgG antibody] | Lateral flow immunoassay based on fluorescence biosensing | anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG in positive sample, human serum sample | Assay time was determined to be 10 min; assay was reproducible | [Chen et al., 2020] |
| Graphene | Spike protein antibody | Field-effect transistor-based amperometric biosensing | SARS-CoV-2 antigen protein and MERS-CoV protein; nasopharyngeal swabs | FET based biosensing device could detect the SARSCoV-2 spike protein at concentrations of 1 fg/mL in phosphate-buffered saline and 100 fg/mL in clinical transport medium; limit of detection: 1.6 × 101 pfu/mL in culture medium whereas 2.42 × 102 copies/mL in clinical samples | [Seo et al., 2020] |
| Gold NPs | nCOVID-19 monoclonal antibody | Amperometric biosensing | COVID-19 spike antigen in saliva samples | Limit of detection: 10 fM; sensitive for the detection of COVID-19Ag, ranging from 1 f. to 1 μM; fabricated Au NPs based immunosensor could be used up to 3 times without major changes in peak current and could detect concentration up to 120 fM; stability up to 21 days | [Mahari et al., 2020] |
| Screen printed carbon electrode (SPCE) based sensing device | nCOVID-19 monoclonal antibody | Amperometric biosensing | COVID-19Ag spiked saliva sample | Detection of COVID-19Ag at 10 f. concentration in standard buffer sample; limit of detection was found to be 90fM in case of spiked saliva samples using SPCE mediated homemade biosensor device; detection of COVID-19Ag traces in patient saliva within 1 min; stability up to 28 days | [Mahari et al., 2020] |
| Iron oxide NPs | Biotinylated probe | Circle to circle amplification based optomagnetic biosensing | RdRp sequence (synthetic complementary DNA of SARS-CoV-2) | Limit of detection was found to be 0.4 fM; total assay time ~100 min; dynamic detection range having 3 order of magnitude | [Tian et al., 2020b] |
| Polymer nanoparticles coated with dye streptavidin (Crimson red) | Rabbit anti-fluorescein antibody, sheep anti-digoxigenin antibody, and biotinylated bovine serum albumin | Multiplex reverse transcription loop mediated isothermal amplification (mRT-LAMP) coupled with a NPs-based lateral flow biosensor (LFB) assay [mRT-LAMP-LFB] | ORF1ab and N genes of SARS-CoV-2; oropharynx swab | Limit of detection was found to be 12 copies (for each detection target) per reaction; total assay time ~60 min; analytical sensitivity 100%; specificity 100% | [Zhu et al., 2020] |
| Iron oxide NPs | Poly (amino ester) with carboxyl groups (PC)-coated MNPs (pcMNPs) | pcMNPs enabled improved RNA extraction and RT-PCR based biosensing | SARS-CoV-2 virus RNA | 10 copies sensitive; linear correlation 10 to 105 copies of SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus particles | [Zhao et al., 2020] |