In this way, electrochemical sensing platforms will be a more commercially attractive and viable technology for the detection of coronavirus-induced infections

In this way, electrochemical sensing platforms will be a more commercially attractive and viable technology for the detection of coronavirus-induced infections. Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflict of interest. Acknowledgements The authors gratefully acknowledge Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE), AcRF Tier 1 grant (Reference No: RG18/17) for the funding of this research.. in nature (HCoV-229E, HCoV-NL63, HCoV-OC43, HCoV-HKU1) [2], which accounts for 15C30% of common cold infections in humans [1]. On the other hand, the remaining three strains possess higher pathogenicity and virulence that have resulted in the development of past epidemics Atovaquone [2] like SARS-CoV in 2003 and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV) in 2012, and even including the recent historic pandemic (SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19) in 2019 that the world is currently fighting. The stronger pathogenicity and virulence of these strains are attributed to the zoonotic transmissions that humans lack immunity towards to. With bats acting as the primary host, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV were transmitted to humans via intermediate species such as palm civets and dromedary camels respectively [3]. Similarly, COVID-19 was also speculated to be involved in the zoonotic transmission from bats to an intermediate host, however the intermediate’s identity has not been validated yet [3]. Therefore, there always exists a continuous risk and future possibility of emerging coronaviruses that can originate from animal viral gene reservoirs to infect humans, which will create an unprecedented need for rapid diagnostic platforms for the early detection of these infectious diseases. Clinically similar but pathogenically different [4], the genomic sequence of SARS-CoV-2 shared around 96% similarity Atovaquone to a horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus affinis) coronavirus RaTG13 [5], approximately 80% similarity with SARS-CoV [3,5], and 50% similarity with MERS-CoV [3]. Since SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 not only belong to the same genus but also share similarities in their Id1 genomic sequences and zoonotic transmission nature, our review article on the overview of electrochemistry detection methods on closely-related coronaviruses aim to shed light on ongoing efforts in the development Atovaquone of electrochemical devices for effective SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic assays. SARS-CoV had affected 26 countries with more than 8000 cases reported in 2003 [2], while MERS-CoV had impacted 27 countries with 2494 laboratory-confirmed cases and 858 deaths recorded since September 2012 [2]. As of 17th August 2020, COVID-19 has spread to 216 countries, areas or territories with an alarming number of 21,549,706 confirmed cases and 767,158 reported deaths [6]. As a result of this exceptionally pernicious SARS-CoV-2 virus, global healthcare systems were maximized with social and economic activities being heavily disrupted as well. Furthermore, the data on COVID-19 infections and death toll still continue to evolve daily, where second waves of cluster infections were seen resurging already in countries like China, Iran, Japan and South Korea after easing of lockdown measures and reopening of economy [7]. Hence, there remains a dire need for accurate and scaled-up analytical testing to quickly isolate the infected individuals and ultimately stop the virus spread. However, in contrast to the past epidemics SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, the wiliest characteristic of SARS-CoV-2 is the silent spread from asymptomatic infected individuals who, even without clinical symptoms, are capable of possibly shedding and transmitting Atovaquone the virus beyond the incubation period of 14 days, accounting for a significant percentage of 40C45% of the total infected cases [8]. Consequently, this high incidence rate of asymptomatic COVID-19 infections highlights the increasing demand and the challenge for highly sensitive diagnostics to detect these silent carriers that might be tested negative due to the variability in viral loads. Besides, it was discovered that the reproduction number of SARS-CoV-2 (R0) was around 2.2 [9] which translates to one unknowingly infected individual can transmit the virus to 2.2 people, with the spreading effect increasing exponentially. With.