Recent advances in the biosensing platforms for sepsis diagnosis

Abstract

Sepsis is one of the major causes of mortality and organ losses due to the infections caused before or after hospitalization. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 11 million people died from sepsis in 2020, which accounted for 20% of all deaths reported worldwide in the same year. This was out of an estimated 48.9 million cases of sepsis that year. Thus, the timely detection and treatment of sepsis are crucial for saving lives and organs of patients. There has been a continuous effort to identify and quantify the microbial load as well as ensure detection at an early stage of infection for ensuring the right treatment. There are various methods for identifying blood-based pathogens, and each of them has their own sensitivity and limit of detection (LOD). Identification by electrochemical and optical methods is unique in terms of their need and condition to be used. In remote and resource-deprived locations, paper-based, microfluidic, electrochemical or easy-to-use devices based on less-energy-intensive methods are more useful. In this work, we present the recent developments and challenges in the field of sepsis-related biosensors. The developments in neonatal-related sepsis biomarkers and sensors, the pathophysiology of sepsis, and the six categories of sepsis biosensors, with the relevant biomarkers, limits of detection (LOD), ease of extraction from bodily/interstitial fluids or analytes and their sensing mechanisms are discussed. The sensing mechanism plays a crucial role in deciding the reliability and durability of such sensors. The challenges in finding biomarkers directly from blood and preserving them while maintaining the integrity and viability for detection are discussed here. With the advent of the new era of artificial intelligence and machine learning, various diagnostic processes and techniques based on these technologies are developed, which are also discussed. This study presents a comprehensive analysis of different sensing techniques, with a particular focus on their sensitivity and limit of detection (LOD), and new mechanisms to simplify the process of pathogen detection with minimal processing time and process innovation.