DNA Biosensor Offers Early Diagnosis of Cervical Cancer

Medical Design Briefs INSIDER

A schematic representation of the novel electrochemical DNA biosensor. (Credit: Journal of Nanobiotechnology, https://jnanobiotechnology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12951-023-01948-6)

Researchers have developed an electrochemical DNA biosensor with enhanced sensitivity for effective HPV detection with high specificity. The biosensor uses a graphitic nano-onion/molybdenum disulfide nanosheet composite with improved conductive electron transfer compared to the nanosheet alone.

Their breakthrough can open doors to the development of electrochemical biosensors for early diagnosis of various ailments.

The researchers prepared the novel electrode surface for probing DNA chemisorption by enabling chemical conjugation between two functional groups: acyl bonds on the surfaces of functionalized nano-onions and amine groups present on the modified MoS2 nanosheets. Cyclic voltammetry experiments revealed that a 1:1 composite electrode had an improved rectangular shape compared to that of an MoS2 nanosheet electrode.

Additionally, they measured the sensitivity of their novel electrochemical DNA biosensor device towards HPV-16 and HPV-18 by employing differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) technique in the presence of methylene blue (MB) as a redox indicator.

Notably, the target DNAs produced from HPV-16 and HPV-18 Siha and Hela cancer cell lines were detected by the proposed sensor effectively and with high specificity. Consequently, MoS2 nanosheets with improved electrical conductivity facilitated by complexation with nano-onions provides a suitable platform for developing effective and efficient electrochemical biosensors for the early diagnosis of a wide variety of ailments, including cervical cancer.

Combining nano-onions or nanodiamonds with different organic biomaterials can facilitate chemical functionality, electron transfer conductivity, light absorption, and more. These, in turn, can lead to innovative disease sensing, targeted drug delivery systems, and biomedical imaging and diagnostics.

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