Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a major threat to global health, estimated to be the cause 30 % (17.3 million in 2008) of deaths every year, and the number of deaths caused by CVD is expected to increase further, reaching 23.3 million by 2030. Hence, there is a growing demand for simpler sample extraction, rapid screening results, and intervention of the subsequent analysis in emergency units. In this paper, we reviewed CVD biomarkers in blood- and saliva-based specimens. The history of cardiac biomarkers indicates that in the beginning, cardiac troponin I (cTnI) was a widely accepted 'gold standard' marker due to its high specificity and selectivity. Considering the advantages of salivary-based cardiac biomarkers, we examined correlations between non-invasive (salivary) and invasive (blood) diagnoses, and it was found that C-reactive protein (CRP) provides a better correlation. Despite the low abundance of salivary CRP, several reports displayed the detection limit down to pg/ml using existing technologies. Thus, salivary CRP has the potential to be used for future forefront diagnostics for the early assessment of cardiac risks.
A rapid and sensitive sandwich electrochemical immunosensor was developed based on the fabrication of the graphene/polyaniline (GP/PANI) nanocomposite onto screen-printed gold electrode (SPGE) for detection of tuberculosis biomarker 10-kDa culture filtrate protein (CFP10). The prepared GP/PANI nanocomposite was characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The chemical bonding and morphology of GP/PANI-modified SPGE were studied by Raman spectroscopy and FESEM coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, respectively. From both studies, it clearly showed that GP/PANI was successfully coated onto SPGE through drop cast technique. Cyclic voltammetry was used to study the electrochemical properties of the modified electrode. The effective surface area for GP/PANI-modified SPGE was enhanced about five times compared with bare SPGE. Differential pulse voltammetry was used to detect the CFP10 antigen. The GP/PANI-modified SPGE that was fortified with sandwich type immunosensor exhibited a wide linear range (20⁻100 ng/mL) with a low detection limit of 15 ng/mL. This proposed electrochemical immunosensor is sensitive, low sample volume, rapid and disposable, which is suitable for tuberculosis detection in real samples.