Recent advances on the piezoelectric, electrochemical, and optical biosensors for the detection of protozoan pathogens

The important protozoan parasites including Plasmodium, Leishmania, Toxoplasma, Trypanosoma and Giardia have been proved as the main reason initiating and developing different types of disease in humans. Transmission of protozoa from one human to another human commonly occurs via various ways such as arthropod vector, person-to-person contact, water, food, or a bite of sand fly and mosquito. So, specific and fast detection has a crucial impact in the controlling of the disease. Conventional methods such as microscopic, immuno-detection and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) have main disadvantages, for example, low sensitivity and specific or very complex and expensive. Various biosensor technologies can have an important role in the quality of human life via their rapid detection, sensitivity and selective monitoring of protozoa disease. Also, biosensor devices can play a critical role in the assessment of the efficiency of new anti-parasite drugs. In this review, the conventional methods used in the diagnosis of protozoa parasites are briefly introduced and different types of nanomaterial-based biosensors designed between 2001 and 2020 to detect pathogenic protozoa parasites, that are associated with various human diseases, are also discussed in further detail. Considering that one of our goals was to investigate new biosensor methods for diagnosis, we tried to select studies mostly between 2010 and 2020.