Electrochemical and PEC platforms for miRNA and other epigenetic markers of cancer diseases: Recent updates
Patrick Severin Sfragano, Serena Pillozzi, Ilaria Palchetti
Abstract
Besides playing significant biological roles, microRNAs (miRNAs) and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) constitute emerging and burgeoning cancer biomarkers collectable from human fluids. Electrochemical and photoelectrochemical biosensors offer great potential for their detection. However, the low abundance of such molecules in biological fluids, especially in early-stage cancer patients, makes it highly necessary to employ signal/sample amplification strategies. Among the variety of these strategies reported in the literature, in this review we summarize the recent advancements in the field, giving an account of the different approaches aimed to overcome this main obstacle. To this end, enzyme-, redox probe- and nanomaterial-based signal amplification strategies, as well as sample-amplification-hyphenated-techniques are assessed, by discussing selected examples. The highlighted approaches demonstrate the use of a variety of specific receptors and (photo)electrochemical assay formats, including the rapid development of novel biology-inspired sensing schemes.