biosensors Review Advances in Enzyme-Based Biosensors for Pesticide Detection Bogdan Bucur 1 ID , Florentina-Daniela Munteanu 2 ID , Jean-Louis Marty 3,* and Alina Vasilescu 4 ID 1 National Institute of Research and Development for Biological Sciences, Centre of Bioanalysis, 296 Splaiul Independentei, 060031 Bucharest, Romania;
[email protected] 2 Faculty of Food Engineering, Tourism and Environmental Protection, “Aurel Vlaicu” University of Arad, Elena Dragoi, No. 2, 310330 Arad, Romania; fl
[email protected] 3 BAE Laboratory, Université de Perpignan via Domitia, 52 Avenue Paul Alduy, 66860 Perpignan, France 4 International Centre of Biodynamics, 1B Intrarea Portocalelor, 060101 Bucharest, Romania;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +33-468-66-1756 Received: 28 February 2018; Accepted: 20 March 2018; Published: 22 March 2018 Abstract: The intensive use of toxic and remanent pesticides in agriculture has prompted research into novel performant, yet cost-effective and fast analytical tools to control the pesticide residue levels in the environment and food. In this context, biosensors based on enzyme inhibition have been proposed as adequate analytical devices with the added advantage of using the toxicity of pesticides for detection purposes, being more “biologically relevant” than standard chromatographic methods. This review proposes an overview of recent advances in the development of biosensors exploiting the inhibition of cholinesterases, photosynthetic system II, alkaline phosphatase, cytochrome P450A1, peroxidase, tyrosinase, laccase, urease, and aldehyde dehydrogenase. While various strategies have been employed to detect pesticides from different classes (organophosphates, carbamates, dithiocarbamates, triazines, phenylureas, diazines, or phenols), the number of practical applications and the variety of environmental and food samples tested remains limited.