Recent advances of sensing strategies for the detection of β-glucuronidase activity

beta-Glucuronidase (beta-GLU), a kind of hydrolase, is widely distributed in mammalian tissues, body fluids, and microbiota. Abnormal changes of beta-GLU activity are often correlated with the occurrence of diseases and deterioration of water quality. Therefore, detection of beta-GLU activity is of great significance in biomedicine and environmental health such as cancer diagnosis and water monitoring. However, the conventional beta-GLU activity assay suffers from the limitations of low sensitivity, poor accuracy, and complex procedure. With the development of analytical chemistry, many advances have been made in the detection of beta-GLU activity in recent years. The sensors for beta-GLU activity detection which have the advantages of rapid and reliable detection have been attracting increased attentions. In this paper, the principles, performances, and limitations of these beta-GLU sensors, including colorimetric sensing, fluorescent sensing, electrochemical sensing for the determination of beta-GLU activity, have been summarized and discussed. Moreover, the challenges and research trends of beta-GLU activity assay are proposed.