Electroanalytical overview: screen-printed electrochemical sensing platforms for the detection of vital cardiac, cancer and inflammatory biomarkers

Biomarkers play an important and irrefutable role in the screening, diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of a wide variety of human diseases. As these biomarkers inevitably feature more and more prominently in the patient care pathway, there is a growing need for technologies that can provide rapid, accurate and sensitive test results at low cost. In this review we showcase, discuss, evaluate, and explain some recent advances in screen-printed electrodes (SPEs) and the modification strategies used for the electrochemical biosensing of some of the important, established biomarkers related to 1) cardiac injury, 2) cancer diagnostics and 3) acute inflammatory conditions, three areas of medicine currently associated with significant healthcare costs. Electroanalytical biosensors are proven to be an attractive alternative to benchtop conventional testing techniques, saving space, whilst allowing enhanced portability, a reduction in testing costs and test turnaround times. Electrochemical-based point-of-care (POC) testing technologies are still in the early stages of commercial, and hence clinical, uptake. Due to the design flexibility, low-cost and reliability of SPEs we expect to see a significant acceleration in the development of SPE-based electrochemical approaches to POC in these areas of medicine. Rapid, simultaneous detection of multiple important analytes in a single test at the point of patient's care will undoubtedly be the driver for uptake into clinical settings; their potential for impact is discussed herein. Herein we review the use of electrochemical point-of-care SPE-based sensor technologies towards the detection of vital, established biomarkers related to cardiac injury, cancer diagnostics and acute inflammatory conditions.