Real-time viral detection through electrolyte-gated field effect transistors: possibility of rapid COVID-19 detection

The rapid spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS CoV-2) infections that were first detected in Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019 led to the state of the global COVID-19 pandemic declared by the World Health Organization in March 2020. Thus, the world faces a new challenge to control the spread of the virus. The pandemic highlighted the need for rapid detection of infections that would be able to accurately screen the population much more rapidly and economically than the gold standard molecular biology-based tools such as quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Such screening measures would be able to isolate infected individuals, including those showing no symptoms, and provide early treatments before more serious complications develop, thus allowing for the spread of infections to be better controlled without the implementation of socioeconomically crippling lockdowns. In this review, we present a comprehensive overview of the major advances in the use of electrolyte-gated field effect transistor-based biosensors for the detection of viruses, including their use for SARS-CoV-2 detection. We describe the main types of bioreceptors used for the detection of viruses in general and those used for COVID-19 in detail.