Electrochemical Biosensors: Principles, Clinical Applications, Challenges and Future Perspectives

With the growing demand for fast, sensitive and inexpensive detection methods, the development of electrochemical biosensors has accelerated in clinical diagnosis, environmental monitoring, and food safety. Traditional analysis methods tend to be costly, complicated, and very expensive to perform, making them restricted to use at the point of care and in real time detection. Hence, this paper attempts to explore the principles, performance, and latest advancement of electrochemical biosensors as a promising substitute to traditional analytical techniques. It examines how biological recognition elements (enzymes, antibodies, nucleic acids) are combined with electrochemical transducers to convert specific biological events into measurable electrical signals. Previous research on sensor design and modification, electrode, and nanomaterials and signal amplification strategies were analyzed using a review research approach. It was found that there are major advancements in the area of nanomaterials and electrode surface engineering that have greatly increased sensitivity, selectivity and limits of detection. Electrochemical biosensors also had other beneficial traits such as quick responsiveness, lower cost, small size and they could be integrated into portable devices. In general, electrochemical biosensors have a lot of potential in future point-of-care diagnostics and personalized treatment but further technological advances are needed so that it can be reliably applied on large scale.