Bisphenol A and Mercury: Application, Toxicity and Detection by Functional Nanomaterial-Enhanced DNA Biosensors

Bisphenol A (BPA) and mercury are two types of important food contaminants that also cause severe and irreversible damage to ecosystems and human health. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a comprehensive summary of their industrial applications, toxicity hazards, restrictive measures and detection methods. This review introduces the wide range of applications of BPA and mercury in industrial production and daily life, as well as the accompanying environmental pollution problems. The toxicity and mechanisms of action of BPA and mercury are herein presented. Although countries around the world have taken relevant measures to ensure the safe use of products and safe food consumption, the risk of their poisoning still exists. Focused on subsequent technical prevention, this review summarizes several common sample pretreatment methods, enabling the determination of the true BPA or mercury content and eventually improving detection accuracy. Four types of functional nanomaterial (FNM)-enhanced DNA biosensors are primarily discussed in this review for the highly selective and sensitive determination of BPA and mercury using mainstream colorimetric, electrochemical, fluorescence and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) methods, as well as other methods. This review also analyzes the existing issues in the development of sample pretreatment and detection methods based on FNM-enhanced DNA biosensors and discusses future direction prospects with the help of the latest cutting-edge technologies such as wearable smart devices, artificial intelligence and big data.