Emerging technologies of 3D printing and mHealth in COVID-19 immunity and regenerative dentistry.

ABSTRACT

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic highlights the importance of developing point-of-care (POC) antibody tests for monitoring the COVID-19 immune response upon viral infection or following vaccination, which requires three key aspects to achieve optimal monitoring, including 3D printed POC device, mobile health, and non-invasive sampling. As a critical tissue engineering concept, additive manufacturing (3D printing) enables accurate control over the dimensional and architectural features of the devices. Mobile health (mHealth) refers to use of portable digital devices, such as smartphones, tablet computers, and fitness and medical wearables, to support health, which facilitates contact tracing, and telehealth consultations during the pandemic. Compared to invasive biosample - blood, saliva is of great importance in the spread and surveillance of COVID-19 as a non-invasive diagnostic method for virus detection and immune status monitoring. However, investigations into 3D printed POC antibody tests and mHealth using non-invasive saliva is relatively limited. and further exploration of 3D-printed antibody POC tests and mHealth applications to monitor antibody production either for disease onset or immune response following vaccination is warranted. This review briefly describes the SARS-CoV-2 virus and immune response after infection and vaccination, then discusses current widely used binding antibody tests using blood samples and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays on 2D microplates before focusing upon emerging POC technological platforms, such as field-effect transistor biosensors, lateral flow assay, microfluidics, and additive manufacturing for fabricating immunoassays, and the possibility of their combination with mHealth. This review proposes that non-invasive biofluid sampling combined with 3D POC antibody tests and mHealth technologies is a promising and novel approach for POC detection and surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 immune response. Furthermore, as key concepts in Dentistry, the application of 3D printing and mHealth was also included to facilitate the appreciation of cutting-edge techniques in regenerative dentistry. This review highlights the potential of 3D printing and mHealth in both COVID-19 immunity monitoring and regenerative dentistry.