THz detection of biomolecules in aqueous environments -- status and perspectives for analysis under physiological conditions and clinical use

TL;DR

This review discusses the current status and future prospects of terahertz (THz) biosensing for detecting biomolecules in aqueous environments, emphasizing challenges, recent advances, and clinical potential.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of THz biosensing techniques in aqueous media, categorizes relevant biomolecules, and compares detection capabilities with existing bioanalytical methods.

Findings

THz techniques can detect ions, carbohydrates, nucleotides, proteins, and biomacromolecules in water.

Recent experimental advances improve detection limits towards clinical relevance.

THz biosensing shows promise for medical diagnostics and biological research.

Abstract

Bioanalytical THz sensing techniques have proven to be an interesting and viable tool for the label-free detection and analysis of biomolecules. However, a major challenge for THz bioanalytics is to perform investigations in the native aqueous environments of the analytes. This review recapitulates the status and future requirements for establishing THz biosensing as a complementary toolbox in the repertoire of standard bioanalytic methods. The potential use in medical research and clinical diagnosis is discussed. Under these considerations, this article presents a comprehensive categorization of biochemically relevant analytes that have been investigated by THz sensing techniques in aqueous media. The detectable concentration levels of ions, carbohydrates, (poly-)nucleotides, active agents, proteins and different biomacromolecules from THz experiments are compared to characteristic physiological concentrations and lower detection limits of state-of-the-art bioanalytical methods. Finally, recent experimental developments and achievements are discussed, which potentially pave the way for THz analysis of biomolecules under clinically relevant conditions.