Polysaccharide-based sensors and nanosensors: A review of recent progress and challenges

Polysaccharides as hydrophilic biopolymers play critical roles in pharmacological, biomechanical, biochemical, and biomedical fields due to various advantages such as high loading efficiencies, good targeting ability, and fast drug release rates as well as low toxicity and high stability. In this review, recent progress in the use of polysaccharides in optical, electrical, label-free, and labeled biosensors has been discussed. Also, the role of polysaccharides and their advantages and disadvantages in the design of nanoparticles-based biosensors, such as enzyme-based, aptamer-based, antibody-based and other sensors has been considered. A special attention has been paid on the research and future applications of microfluidic devices (lab-on-chip systems) as tools for pointof-care sensing.