Luciferase-Based Biosensors in the Era of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Luciferase-basedbiosensors have a wide range of applications andassay formats, including their relatively recent use in the studyof viruses. Split luciferase, bioluminescence resonance energy transfer,circularly permuted luciferase, cyclic luciferase, and dual luciferasesystems have all been used to interrogate the structure and functionof prominent viruses infecting humans, animals, and plants. The utilityof these assays is demonstrated by numerous studies which have notonly successfully characterized interactions between viral and hostcell proteins but that have also used these systems to identify viralinhibitors. In the present COVID-19 pandemic, luciferase-based biosensorsare already playing a critical role in the study of the culprit virusSARS-CoV-2 as well as in the development of serological assays anddrug development via high-throughput screening. In this review paper,we provide a summary of existing luciferase-based biosensors and theirapplications in virology.

Automated summary

Luciferase-based biosensors have wide applications in virology, being used to study virus structure and function, as well as successfully identifying viral inhibitors. These biosensors are playing a critical role in researching SARS-CoV-2 and developing serological assays and drugs during the COVID-19 pandemic.