Currently, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is ravaging the world, causing serious crisis in economy and human health. The top priority is the detection and drug development of the novel coronavirus. The gold standard for real-time diagnosis of coronavirus disease is the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), which is usually operatively complex and time-consuming. Biosensors are known for their low cost and rapid detection, which are developing rapidly in detecting severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The current study showed that the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 will bind to angiotensin-converting hormone 2 (ACE2) to mediate the entry of the virus into cells. Interestingly, the affinity between ACE2 and SARS-CoV-2 spike protein increases with the mutation of the virus. Using ACE2 as a biosensor recognition receptor to detect SARS-CoV-2 will effectively avoid the decline of detection accuracy and false negative caused by variants. In fact, due to the variation of the virus, it may even lead to enhanced detection performance. In addition, ACE2-specific drugs to prevent SARS-CoV-2 from entering cells will be effectively evaluated using the biosensors even with virus mutations. Here, we reviewed the biosensors for rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2 by ACE2 and discussed the advantages of ACE2 as an antibody for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 variants. The review also discussed the value of ACE2-based biosensors for screening for drugs that modulate the interaction between ACE2 and SARS-CoV-2.

当前，2019 年冠状病毒病 (COVID-19) 大流行正在全球肆虐，给经济和人类健康造成严重危机。当务之急是新型冠状病毒的检测和药物研发。实时诊断冠状病毒疾病的金标准是逆转录-聚合酶链反应 (RT-PCR)，该反应通常操作复杂且耗时。生物传感器以低成本和快速检测着称，在检测严重急性呼吸系统综合症冠状病毒 2 (SARS-CoV-2) 方面发展迅速。目前的研究表明，SARS-CoV-2 的刺突蛋白会与血管紧张素转换激素 2 (ACE2) 结合，从而介导病毒进入细胞。有趣的是，ACE2 和 SARS-CoV-2 刺突蛋白之间的亲和力随着病毒的突变而增加。使用ACE2作为生物传感器识别受体检测SARS-CoV-2，将有效避免变异导致的检测准确率下降和假阴性。事实上，由于病毒的变异，它甚至可能导致检测性能的增强。此外，即使病毒发生突变，也可以使用生物传感器有效地评估用于防止 SARS-CoV-2 进入细胞的 ACE2 特异性药物。在这里，我们回顾了 ACE2 快速检测 SARS-CoV-2 的生物传感器，并讨论了 ACE2 作为抗体检测 SARS-CoV-2 变异体的优势。该综述还讨论了基于 ACE2 的生物传感器在筛选调节 ACE2 和 SARS-CoV-2 之间相互作用的药物方面的价值。