New Insights into the Biosensing of Parkinson's Disease Biomarkers: A Concise Review

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a long-term, degenerative, and neurological disease in which a person loses control of certain body functions. The formulation of novel effective therapeutics for PD as a neurodegenerative disease requires accurate and efficient diagnosis at the early stages.

Analyzing data gathered by measurable signals converted from biological reactions allows for qualitative and quantitative evaluations. Among various approaches reported so far, biosensors are powerful analytical tools that have been used in detecting the biomarkers of PD.

Biosensor's biological recognition components include antibodies, receptors, microorganisms, nucleic acids, enzymes, cells and tissues, and biomimetic structures. This review introduces electrochemical, optical, and optochemical detection of PD biomarkers based on recent advances in nanotechnology and material science, which resulted in the development of high-performance biosensors in this field.

PD biomarkers such as α-synuclein protein, dopamine (DA), urate, ascorbic acid, miRNAs, and their biological roles are summarized. Additionally, the advantages and disadvantages of the usual standard methods are reviewed. We compared electrochemical, optical, and optochemical biosensors' properties and novel strategies for higher sensitivity and selectivity.

The development of novel biosensors is required for the early diagnosis of PD as sensitive, rapid, reliable, and cost-effective systems.