Abstract
The unexpected increase of the global SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 has required exceptional methods to accomplish instant detection and decrease the spread rate. This chapter highlights the advance of lab-on-chip biosensing devices for the identification of COVID-19 infection. In this chapter, the authors study the roles of using lab-on-chip equipment in response to the present global COVID-19 pandemic, comprising their potential for rapid sample-to-answer processing times and facility of incorporation into a variety of healthcare backgrounds.
TopIntroduction
In the 21st century, the rise of new respiratory tract infections has been a growing alarm that has turned into a most important reason for alarm, and this increasing alert became a worldwide COVID-19 pandemic or also known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) (Asghari et al., 2021; Barua et al., 2021; Hsieh et al., 2020). The new, imperceptible battle against the COVID-19 pandemic can stimulate main developments in the progress of identification, treatment, and diagnosis methods. The extremely contagious COVID-19 virus is tough to identify, in patients with clinically apparent signs of cough, fever, and breathing problems (Barua et al., 2021). Figure 1 shows the systematic and respiratory problems due to COVID-19 infection. COVID-19 is a single-stranded RNA virus (Figure 2) which is existent in animals and humans and is generally spread through sneezing and close social contact (Singhal et al., 2020; Barua et al., 2021; Adhikari et al., 2020; Luan et al., 2020). The genome size of COVID-19 varies from 29.8 kb-29.9 kb and its structure genome followed the particular gene physiognomies to identified CoVs, and COVID-19 keeps the largest genome size of any recognized RNA virus (Crits-Christoph et al., 2021).
Figure 1. The systematic and respiratory problems due to COVID-19 infection
Figure 2. Source: Kitchen et al. (2022) The most recognized and normally used technique for recognizing pathogens like COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2 depends on real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) (Wikramaratna et al., 2020). The high accurateness and exactness of the clinical RT-PCR test at the initial phases of infection in a patient (particularly symptomatic) make it the utmost consistent process to identify COVID-19 up to the present time. The test is precisely done for a qualitative investigation of the nucleic acid of the pathogen in persons who meet COVID-19 infection symptoms and signs (Dinnes et al., 2021). For infected persons who are recognized as an incorrect negative or asymptomatic or false result with a viral load underneath the recognition limit of RT-PCR tests, the second-best alternative is a serological test and it can be applied to advance control the COVID-19 spread. Though, the above-mentioned techniques and alike medical analysis all necessitate advanced clinical investigation, expensive apparatus, and proficiency, which are ineffective for the determination of point-of-care rapid identification (Barua et al., 2021; Pecoraro et al., 2022; Sharif et al., 2021; Padhy et al., 2020).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Lateral Flow Assays: An easy and quick diagnostic test called a lateral flow assay (lfa) is used to find out whether a target molecule is present or absent in a sample, usually a liquid like blood or urine. Lfas are based on the immunoassay theory, which use antibodies to find particular antigens.
Magnetic Nanoparticles: Nano-scale particles with magnetic properties are known as magnetic nanoparticles; their sizes typically range from 1 to 100 nanometers. Iron, nickel, cobalt, or their alloys, which are magnetic materials, are frequently used in their construction. These nanoparticles' magnetic characteristics make them suitable for a range of biomedical, materials science, and environmental remediation applications.
Lab-on-Chip: The term “lab-on-a-chip” (LoC) describes the fusion of various laboratory operations onto a tiny microchip or a miniature device. The preparation, analysis, and detection of samples are only a few of the duties that LoC devices are made to handle in the lab. The devices can be used for a range of applications in disciplines like biomedical engineering, chemistry, and microbiology. They are typically very small, occasionally measuring only a few millimeters.
Plasmonic Sensors: Biosensors known as plasmonic sensors use the plasmonics principles to track changes in a sample's refractive index. Plasmon resonance happens when light energy is absorbed by metal nanoparticles, producing oscillations of the conduction electrons at the metal's surface. Plasmonics is the study of the interaction between light and metal surfaces.
COVID-19: The new coronavirus sars-cov-2 is the cause of the extremely contagious respiratory disease COVID-19. It was first identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, and it soon spread throughout the world, causing a global pandemic. The signs of COVID-19 include fever, coughing, and breathing difficulties, and they can be minor to severe. When an infected individual coughs, sneezes, talks, or breathes, respiratory droplets are essentially how the virus is transmitted. The prevention of COVID-19's spread by practices such mask use, excellent hand cleanliness, social seclusion, and immunization is essential.