AuNP-based biosensors for the diagnosis of pathogenic human coronaviruses: COVID-19 pandemic developments

The outbreak rate of human coronaviruses (CoVs) especially highly pathogenic CoVs is increasing alarmingly. Early detection of these viruses allows treatment interventions to be provided more quickly to people at higher risk, as well as helping to identify asymptomatic carriers and isolate them as quickly as possible, thus preventing the disease transmission chain. The current diagnostic methods such as RT-PCR are not ideal due to high cost, low accuracy, low speed, and probability of false results. Therefore, a reliable and accurate method for the detection of CoVs in biofluids can become a front-line tool in order to deal with the spread of these deadly viruses. Currently, the nanomaterial-based sensing devices for detection of human coronaviruses from laboratory diagnosis to point-of-care (PoC) diagnosis are progressing rapidly. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have revolutionized the field of biosensors because of the outstanding optical and electrochemical properties. In this review paper, a detailed overview of AuNP-based biosensing strategies with the varied transducers (electrochemical, optical, etc.) and also different biomarkers (protein antigens and nucleic acids) was presented for the detection of human coronaviruses including SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV-1, and MERS-CoV and lowly pathogenic CoVs. The present review highlights the newest trends in the SARS-CoV-2 nanobiosensors from the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic until 2022. We hope that the presented examples in this review paper convince readers that AuNPs are a suitable platform for the designing of biosensors. Graphical abstract