The Key Laboratory of Analysis and Detection Technology for Food Safety of the MOE, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Analysis and Detection Technology for Food Safety, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350108, PR China.
Biosens Bioelectron. 2013 Dec 15;50:132-6. doi: 10.1016/j.bios.2013.06.040. Epub 2013 Jun 29.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs), a kind of endogenous, noncoding RNAs (19-24 nucleotides), play vital roles in regulating gene expression and cellular processes. In recent years, it has been found that circulating miRNAs are differentially expressed in patients and healthy controls. This leads to the suggestion that circulating miRNAs are promising biomarkers for cancer classification and prognosis. However, it is still difficult to detect circulating miRNAs directly from real samples such as human serum without prior extraction and purification. In this work, we developed an ultrasensitive electrochemical biosensor for detection of cancer-associated circulating miRNAs based on DNA concatamers amplification. The proposed biosensor showed a high sensitivity for target miRNA-21 in a concentration range from 100 aM to 100 pM with a detection limit of 100 aM. Furthermore, the biosensor was successfully employed for direct detection of circulating miRNAs in human serum. Due to the high sensitivity, good selectivity and stability, the proposed electrochemical biosensor might have potential clinical application for circulating miRNAs in relation to diagnosis and prognosis.
微小 RNA（miRNA）是一类内源性、非编码的 RNA（19-24 个核苷酸），在调节基因表达和细胞过程中发挥着重要作用。近年来，人们发现循环 miRNA 在患者和健康对照者中表达存在差异。这表明循环 miRNA 是癌症分类和预后的有前途的生物标志物。然而，在没有预先提取和纯化的情况下，直接从人血清等实际样本中检测循环 miRNA 仍然很困难。在这项工作中，我们开发了一种基于 DNA 连接子扩增的超灵敏电化学生物传感器，用于检测与癌症相关的循环 miRNA。该生物传感器对靶 miRNA-21 的检测灵敏度高，在 100 aM 到 100 pM 的浓度范围内，检测限为 100 aM。此外，该生物传感器还成功地用于直接检测人血清中的循环 miRNA。由于具有高灵敏度、良好的选择性和稳定性，该电化学生物传感器可能在与诊断和预后相关的循环 miRNA 的临床应用中具有潜力。
