Genosensors, a nanomaterial-based platform for microRNA-21 detection, non-invasive methods in early detection of cancer

DNA/RNA-based electrochemical nanobiosensors for early detection of cancers

Nucleic acids, like DNA and RNA, serve as versatile recognition elements in electrochemical biosensors, demonstrating notable efficacy in detecting various cancer biomarkers with high sensitivity and selectivity. These biosensors offer advantages such as cost-effectiveness, rapid response, ease of operation, and minimal sample preparation. This review provides a comprehensive overview of recent developments in nucleic acid-based electrochemical biosensors for cancer diagnosis, comparing them with antibody-based counterparts. Specific examples targeting key cancer biomarkers, including prostate-specific antigen, microRNA-21, and carcinoembryonic antigen, are highlighted. The discussion delves into challenges and limitations, encompassing stability, reproducibility, interference, and standardization issues. The review suggests future research directions, exploring new nucleic acid recognition elements, innovative transducer materials and designs, novel signal amplification strategies, and integration with microfluidic devices or portable instruments. Evaluating these biosensors in clinical settings using actual samples from cancer patients or healthy donors is emphasized. These sensors are sensitive and specific at detecting non-communicable and communicable disease biomarkers. DNA and RNA's self-assembly, programmability, catalytic activity, and dynamic behavior enable adaptable sensing platforms. They can increase biosensor biocompatibility, stability, signal transduction, and amplification with nanomaterials. In conclusion, nucleic acids-based electrochemical biosensors hold significant potential to enhance cancer detection and treatment through early and accurate diagnosis.

Nanomaterials promote the fast development of electrochemical MiRNA biosensors

Cancer has become the leading cause of death worldwide. In recent years, molecular diagnosis has demonstrated great potential in the prediction and diagnosis of cancer. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short oligonucleotides that regulate gene expression and cell function and are considered ideal biomarkers for cancer detection, diagnosis, and patient prognosis. Therefore, the specific and sensitive detection of ultra-low quantities of miRNA is of great significance. MiRNA biosensors based on electrochemical technology have advantages of high sensitivity, low cost and fast response. Nanomaterials show great potential in miRNA electrochemical detection and promote the rapid development of electrochemical miRNA biosensors. Some methods and signal amplification strategies for miRNA detection in recent years are reviewed herein, followed by a discussion of the latest progress in electrochemical miRNA detection based on different types of nanomaterial. Future perspectives and challenges are also proposed for further exploration of nanomaterials to bring breakthroughs in electrochemical miRNA detection.

A versatile upconversion-based multimode lateral flow platform for rapid and ultrasensitive detection of microRNA towards health monitoring

MicroRNAs are small single-stranded RNA molecules associated with gene expression and immune response, suggesting their potential as biomarkers for health monitoring. Herein, we designed a novel upconversion-based multimode lateral flow assay (LFA) system to detect microRNAs in body fluids by simultaneously producing three unique signals within a detection strip. The core-shell Au-DTNB@Ag nanoparticles act as both the Raman reporters and acceptors, quenching fluorescence from upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs, NaYF4: Yb3+, Er3+) via the Förster resonance energy transfer mechanism. Using microRNA-21 as a representative analyte, the LFA system offers remarkable detection range from 2 nM to 1 fM, comparable to outcomes from signal amplification methods, due to the successful single-layer self-assembly of UCNPs on the NC membrane, which greatly enhances both the convenience and sensitivity of the LFA technique. Additionally, our proprietary fluorescence-Raman detection platform simplifies result acquisition by reducing procedural intricacies. The biosensor, when evaluated with diverse bodily fluids, showed remarkable selectivity and sustained stability. Importantly, our LFA biosensor effectively identified periodontitis and lung cancer patients from healthy subjects in genuine samples, indicating significant potential for disease prediction, early diagnosis, and progression tracking. This system holds promise as a multifunctional tool for various biomarker assays.

A novel β-cyclodextrin-assisted enhancement strategy for portable and sensitive detection of miR-21 in human serum

Benefiting from our discovery that β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) could enhance the catalytic activity of invertase through hydrogen bonding to improve detection sensitivity, a highly sensitive and convenient biosensor for the detection of miR-21 was proposed, which is based on the simplicity of reading signals from a personal glucose meter (PGM), combined with self-assembled signal amplification probes and the performance of β-CD as an enhancer. In the presence of miR-21, magnetic nanoparticle coupled capture DNA (MNPs-cDNA) could capture it and then connect assist DNA/H1-invertase (aDNA/H1) and self-assembled signal amplification probes (H1/H2) in turn. As a result, a "super sandwich" structure was formed. The invertase on MNPs-cDNA could catalyze the hydrolysis of sucrose to glucose and this catalytic process could be enhanced by β-CD. The PGM signal exhibited a linear correlation with miR-21 concentration within the range of 25 pmol L-1 to 3 nmol L-1, and the detection limit was as low as 5 pmol L-1 with high specificity. Moreover, the recoveries were 103.82-124.65% and RSD was 2.59-6.43%. Furthermore, the biosensor was validated for the detection of miR-21 in serum, and the results showed that miR-21 levels in serum samples from patients with Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) (n = 12) were significantly higher than those from healthy controls (n = 12) (P < 0.001). Therefore, the ingenious combination of PGM-based signal reading, self-assembled signal amplification probes and β-CD as an enhancer successfully constructed a convenient, sensitive and specific biosensing method, which is expected to be applied to clinical diagnosis.

SERS-electrochemical dual-mode detection of microRNA on same interface assisted by exonuclease III signal transformation

Dual-mode sensing has attracted more attentions which provide more accurate and reliable approach of cancer-related biomarkers. Herein, we developed a novel SERS/electrochemical dual-mode biosensor for miRNA 21 detection based on Exo III-assisted signal transformation. Firstly, the Au NPs were deposited on electrode as SERS substrate and Mn3O4/S4(DNA signal strand) was modified on Au NPs/S5 by the DNA strands S5-S4 pairing principle as hydrogen peroxide catalyst, leading to an obviously high DPV electrical signal without Raman signal. Subsequently, the presence of miRNA 21 will activate the Mn3O4/S4 to be decomposed under exonuclease III-assisted process, then the S3' chains modified with Raman molecular Cy3(Cy3-S3') is continuously connected to the Au NPs/S5 by DNA stands S5-S3' pairing principle, leading to the Raman signal response and DPV signal reduction. The biosensor shows good linear calibration curves of both SERS and electrochemical sensing modes with the detection limit of 3.98 × 10-3 nM and 6.89 × 10-5 nM, respectively. This work finds an ingenious mode for dual detection of microRNA on a same interface, which opens a new strategy for SERS and electrochemical analysis.

Biosensors; nanomaterial-based methods in diagnosing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) before the progression of pulmonary infection can be very effective in its early treatment. The Mtb grows so slowly that it takes about 6-8 weeks to be diagnosed even using sensitive cell culture methods. The main opponent in tuberculosis (TB) and nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) epidemiology, like in all contagious diseases, is to pinpoint the source of infection and reveal its transmission and dispersion ways in the environment. It is crucial to be able to distinguish and monitor specific mycobacterium strains in order to do this. In food analysis, clinical diagnosis, environmental monitoring, and bioprocess, biosensing technologies have been improved to manage and detect Mtb. Biosensors are progressively being considered pioneering tools for point-of-care diagnostics in Mtb discoveries. In this review, we present an epitome of recent developments of biosensing technologies for M. tuberculosis detection, which are categorized on the basis of types of electrochemical, Fluorescent, Photo-thermal, Lateral Flow, Magneto-resistive, Laser, Plasmonic, and Optic biosensors.

Electrochemical impedance biosensor based on Y chromosome-specific sequences for fetal sex determination

A new electrochemical biosensor based on the sequence of chromosome Y (SRY) has been introduced to determine the gender of the fetus. At first, the DNA probe was designed based on the SRY gene sequence on chromosome Y. Then, a suitable functional group was added to the DNA probe, and it has been immobilized on the surface of the electrode modified with a nanocomposite containing Cu(OH)2 @N-C n-boxes. This substrate causes more DNA probes to connect to the electrode surface by increasing the effective surface area. The presence of the SRY sequence in the DNA sample extracted from blood was detected by the electrochemical signal of the bio-sensor. After optimizing the parameters, the fabricated genosensor showed linear responses in the two concentration ranges containing 0.5 fM to 50 pM and 50 pM to 500 nM. The limit of detection (LOD) for the proposed method was 0.16 fM. The proposed genosensor has been successfully used to determine the gender of the fetus using cell-free fetal DNA (cffDNA) in the blood plasma of several pregnant mothers. This method has advantages such as being simple, portable, accurate, and non-invasive for early determination of the gender of the fetus and early diagnosis of X-linked genetic disorders.

Recent advances in the detection of glioblastoma, from imaging-based methods to proteomics and biosensors: A narrative review

Glioblastoma (GBM) is an aggressive type of cancer that originates in the cells called astrocytes, which support the functioning of nerve cells. It can develop in either the brain or the spinal cord and is also known as glioblastoma multiform. GBM is a highly aggressive cancer that can occur in either the brain or spinal cord. The detection of GBM in biofluids offers potential advantages over current methods for diagnosing and treatment monitoring of glial tumors. Biofluid-based detection of GBM focuses on identifying tumor-specific biomarkers in blood and cerebrospinal fluid. To date, different methods have been used to detect biomarkers of GBM, ranging from various imaging techniques to molecular approaches. Each method has its own strengths and weaknesses. The present review aims to scrutinize multiple diagnostic methods for GBM, with a focus on proteomics methods and biosensors. In other words, this study aims to provide an overview of the most significant research findings based on proteomics and biosensors for the diagnosis of GBM.

In situ detection of miRNA-21 in MCF-7 cell-derived extracellular vesicles using the red blood cell membrane vesicle strategy

In this work, we constructed a novel membrane fusion strategy for extracellular vesicles (EVs) and red blood cell membrane vesicles (RVs). A nanoscale space is formed, which can improve the efficiency of the probe reaction with miRNA-21, which allows the in situ fluorescence detection of miRNA-21 in EVs.