LAUSR

BACKGROUND Biosensor is widely applied for bio-molecules detection such as blood glucose detection, cholesterol detection, and gene detection. Cellulose as the most dominating natural polymer has attracted more and more interests, especially in medical field such as advanced medical diagnosis. Cellulose could endow biosensors with improved biocompatibility, biodegradability and non-toxicity, which is attractive to be used in biosensors for medical diagnosis. This mini-review summarized the current development of cellulose-based biosensors as well as their applications in medical diagnosis in recent years. METHODS By searching the literatures recent years, several kinds of cellulose used in preparation of biosensors are discussed including different cellulose derivatives, bacterial cellulose and nano-cellulose. The type of biosensor was briefly described as well as the detection principle. Cellulose-based biosensors were summarized as the form of paper, membrane, nano-cellulose and others. Various methods to prepare cellulose-based biosensors were also described. RESULTS Cellulose and its derivatives with unique chemical structure have demonstrated to be versatile materials as a substrate which provides a good platform for achieving immobilizing bioactive molecules in biosensors. These cellulose-based biosensors possess some desirable properties such as accuracy, sensitivity, convenience, low cost and fast response. Among them, cellulose paper-based biosensors have the advantages of low cost and convenient operation. Nano-cellulose has unique properties such as large aspect ratio, good dispersing ability and high absorption capacity. CONCLUSION Cellulose displays a promising application in biosensors which could be used to detect different bio-molecules such as glucose, lactate, urea, gene, cell, amino acid, cholesterol, protein and hydroquinone. In the future, attention will be focused on the design of miniaturized, multifunctional, intelligent and integrated biosensors. Low cost and environmental friendly biosensor will be more concerned.