Next-generation diagnostics: augmented sensitivity in amplification-powered biosensing

Among the ultimate requirements of biosensor technology, sensitivity, stability, and specificity are undoubtedly crucial features to enter the market. Actually, sensitivity is a major drawback for biosensors, especially where there is a low abundance of targets. To address this concern, biosensor technology has been supported by effective methodologies for the target isothermal amplification, successfully applied to sensitively detect nucleic acids of viral and bacterial sources, capable to operate in low-resource settings and instrumentations, an important prerequisite for microfluidics and point-of-care diagnostics. This review of 133 refs provides an in-depth description of the available methods for isothermal amplification of nucleic acids, with pros and cons, and their integration into different detection systems. The potential of combining the amplification-powered biosensor with technological advances in the branches of nanotechnology and paper microfluidics is also proved by excellent examples from the literature.