Recent advances in nanomaterial-based biosensor for testosterone detection

Abstract

Steroid hormone detection is of great concern because of the influential effect of such hormones on human health and activity. In particular, the determination of testosterone is utmost important as it directly relates to the multiple diseases in its deficiency or excess in our body. As the level of testosterone to be detected is typically in pg/mL range, efficient but highly sensitive biosensor platforms have been required. The impact of nanomaterials in this effort is indeed high for the improved sensitivity as well as specificity. In this review, we summarise all such biosensors related to testosterone till date where different types of nanomaterials (from carbon and metal source) have contributed. The detection methods mainly include optical, electrochemical methods considering rapid and user-friendly characteristics. The classification of biosensors is primarily based on receptor materials where nanomaterials play a vital role. The efficiency, detection limit, and advantage or limitation are discussed for each work. Further, the future perspective of the developed methods has been discussed for on-site detection in the form of point-of-care (POC) device. This will help testosterone biosensor researcher to get a platform covering up-to-date findings and strategies to improve their work design.