Nanosensors Array for Early Detection of Emerging and Re-emerging Coronaviruses

Dear Colleagues,

Global incidents of emerging and re-emerging infectious disease have shown that threats of highly infectious agents will continue to emerge at an accelerated rate. Over the past 5 years, outbreaks caused by microbes have cost billions of dollars and many lives, particularly in lower- and middle-income countries. Among these, bacteria and viruses are the causes of severe infection, which are transmitted to humans by other animals. Currently, COVID-19 is spreading all over the world, resulting in a global pandemic that has caused millions of deaths. The emergence of various types and subtypes of coronavirus, such as SARS-CoV-1, MERS, SARS-CoV-2, and SARS-CoV-2 Omicron, requires effective surveillance to prevent their spread and to develop appropriate anti-COVID-19 vaccines. The current expectation is to identify these pathogens in a shorter time so that treatments are readily used by all levels of professionals at low-cost for early diagnosis.

Currently, the failure of accurate diagnosis is the major problem in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. The currently available clinical tests do not function as rapid identification of emerging and re-emerging new subtypes or provide early detection of new coronaviruses. Multiplex analysis is one of the immedidate needs to be established for discriminating and determining closely related emerged and emerging strains. Towards these lines, there is an urgent need for the development of sensors especially for epidemic diseases such as COVID-19. Diagnostic probes such as glycans, aptamers, and antibodies now allow for discrimination among various dengue fever strains, including new subtypes. Several sensors have been developed based on these probes in efforts to augment coronavirus detection. 

Hence, this Special Issue is focusing on the development of a novel “Nanosensors Array” which is required for highly selective, sensitive, rapid and early detection of specific coronavirus strains. In this Special Issue, we invite submissions of research findings relevant to a novel sensor using nanomaterials fabricated with interdigitated electrodes to monitor the interaction of aptamer and coronaviruses. This sensor can be used as a real time, non-invasive, point-of-care device for early diagnosis of emerging and re-emerging coronavirus infections in the world.

Prof. Dr. Velusamy Palaniyandi
Dr. Subash C B Gopinath
Dr. Raman Pachaiappan
Guest Editors

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• aptamer
• biomarker
• coronavirus
• early detection
• nanobiosensor
• nanomaterials