Multifarious biosensors for highly efficient bleomycin detection: Recent trends, different methods, and future directions

As a group of glycopeptide-originated antibiotics that isolated from Streptomyces species, bleomycin (BLM) has been confirmed to possess excellent antitumor property and widely applied as antitumor antibiotics to treat various clinical neoplastic-related diseases, such as non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, ovarian cancer, squamous cell carcinomas and so on. However, the bad or side effects that brought by the irrational use or even misuse made the sensitive analysis of BLM increasingly significant. Despite numerous innovative methods have been designed to detect BLM, a comprehensive review that could not only elucidate latest advancements of different BLM sensors, but also disclose the limitations and give reasonable perspective has not been reported and remains urgent requirement. Herein, we examine the state-of-the-art developments in BLM sensors in recent 15 years (from 2010 to 2024). Initially, the composition and antitumor mechanism of BLM are clearly demonstrated. Afterwards, the detailed mechanism, advantages, and disadvantages of various protocols for BLM detection (colorimetric, fluorescent, electrochemical, and other techniques) are systematically enumerated and reviewed. Finally, we emphasize current restrictions of this area and further highlight insightful directions for the future advancement. This review not only filled up the blanks in this area through making a thorough summary of latest BLM sensors, but also provided essential guidelines and overall horizons for the exploration of novel biosensors for pharmaceutical analysis and biomarker detection, which will be undoubtedly beneficial to both newcomers and experts.