Breaking barriers in electrochemical biosensing using bioinspired peptide and phage probes

Abstract

Electrochemical biosensing continues to advance tirelessly, overcoming barriers that have kept it from leaving research laboratories for many years. Among them, its compromised performance in complex biological matrices due to fouling or receptor stability issues, the limitations in determining toxic and small analytes, and its use, conditioned to the commercial availability of commercial receptors and the exploration of natural molecular interactions, deserved to be highlighted. To address these challenges, in addition to the intrinsic properties of electrochemical biosensing, its coupling with biomimetic materials has played a fundamental role, among which bioinspired phage and peptide probes stand out. The versatility in design and employment of these probes has opened an unimaginable plethora of possibilities for electrochemical biosensing, improving their performance far beyond the development of highly sensitive and selective devices. The state of the art offers robust electroanalytical biotools, capable of operating in complex samples and with exciting opportunities to discover and determine targets regardless of their toxicity and size, the commercial availability of bioreceptors, and prior knowledge of molecular interactions. With all this in mind, this review offers a panoramic, novel, and updated vision of both the tremendous advances and opportunities offered by the combination of electrochemical biosensors with bioinspired phage and peptide probes and the challenges and research efforts that are envisioned in the immediate future.