| Alpha-fetoprotein as a multifunctional glycoprotein with a dual regulatory role in cancer and fetal activities is belonging to an albuminoid gene family. Due to important biological activities of alphafetoprotein in the adjustment of cancer, the level of this biomarker, majorly in liver carcinomas,
abnormally is elevated. Also, the probability of high-risk or low-risk patients for chromosomal abnormalities can be identified by the serum level of alpha-fetoprotein. The detection of biomarkers possesses
an important role in prognosis and early diagnosis of cancer and other diseases. So, the development of
accurate and sensitive methods for measurement of alpha-fetoprotein is of great importance. Among the
various methods which have been developed to detect biomarkers, biosensors present promising role
due to advantages of high sensitivity specificity, easy operation, and instrumentation. Hence, the present
review focuses on the studies in the field of designing and fabrication of optical and electrochemical
biosensors for the identification and quantification of alpha-fetoprotein. This review obviously indicates
that designed and introduced biosensors have been well fabricated through surface modification,
nanofabrication, and bio-functionalization techniques to detect alpha-fetoprotein below the cut-off level
(20 ng/mL). Despite various advantages of established biosensors, but they still suffer from some defects
to develop in clinical assays. The optical biosensors possessed more complex designing in comparison
with electrochemical biosensors, which limits their application for clinical goals. Also, it is highly
demanded to the incorporation of sensitive and easy to structure of electrochemical biosensors with
microfluidic chips to enable high-throughput sample detection, portability, point-of-care and postoperative usage in the future researches |