Cholesterol Detection by Electrochemical Sensors: A Review

One of the important molecules in homeostasis, especially for hormone metabolism, cellular membrane production, and vitamin D synthesis is cholesterol. However, studies showed that increased levels of this molecule would be associated with increased incidence of cardiovascular diseases including heart failure and myocardial infarction (MI). Thus, the measurement of the blood level of cholesterol is an important step for early detection and prevention of several diseases. Electrochemical sensors with high accuracy could be useful for the detection of cholesterol in body fluids. Due to the outstanding chemical and physical properties that nanoparticles possess, they are perfectly suited for the development of new and improved sensing devices. In particular, electrochemical sensors and biosensors are two types of sensing devices that could benefit from the use of nanoparticles. Many different kinds of nanoparticles, such as metal nanoparticles, oxide nanoparticles, semiconductor nanoparticles, and even composite nanoparticles, have found widespread application in electrochemical sensors and biosensors, respectively. This review has covered a variety of electrochemical biosensors for cholesterol detection, including conductometric, amperometric, and potentiometric-based biosensors, as well as their detection techniques and limitations.