Electrochemical nucleic acid biosensors: from fabrication to application

Abstract

Electrochemical biosensors have been around since the 1960s. They are among the most researched and applied biosensors. Their high portability and biocompatibility have seen them being used in the construction of in vivo biosensors. In the past three decades, their applications have been broadened from the detection of small molecules like glucose to nucleic acids and proteins. In particular, leveraging the specific base-pairing mechanism of nucleic acids, impressive progress has been achieved in the field of electrochemical nucleic acid biosensors. Moreover, various signal amplification strategies in conjunction with microfabrication technology have been extensively studied and have resulted in significant improvements in the sensitivity and multiplexing capability of electrochemical nucleic acid biosensors. In this article, the progress in the research and applications of electrochemical nucleic acid biosensors is reviewed with an emphasis on the principal components of electrochemical nucleic acid biosensors, their construction, sensing mechanism and technical applications with some discussion on challenges and perspectives.

Interplay of Effective Surface Area, Mass Transport, and Electrochemical Features in Nanoporous Nucleic Acid Sensors

“…Effective electrode surface area is one of the main parameters that can influence the performance of an electrochemical biosensor. , A larger effective-to-geometric surface area ratio (hence, a higher EF) ideally translates into a larger number of capture DNA probes bound to the sensor, and therefore to an enhanced probability of probe–target interactions. This has been one of the primary motivators for the sensor community’s interest in nanostructured electrodes. , To that end, we initially investigated if the increase in EF of the np-Au electrodes monotonically improves the sensor performance.…”

Anomalous Trends in Nucleic Acid-Based Electrochemical Biosensors with Nanoporous Gold Electrodes

“…Next-generation sequencing technology, while providing impressive sequence information without a priori knowledge of organisms, necessary sample preparation, and target application followed by bioinformatics interpretation, makes it less desirable for applications requiring a fast diagnostic turnaround. Alternatively, electrochemical nucleic acid-based sensors have attracted significant attention as powerful bioanalytical tools, as they can be multiplexed and easily interfaced with data acquisition electronics for portability. − …”

Emerging barcode particles for multiplex bioassays

“…The name nucleic acid is the generic term for deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and several types of ribonucleic acid (RNA). They are typical linear bio-macromolecules that consist of three kinds of different subunits, among which 5-carbon sugars and phosphates can be combined to form the backbones of the nucleic acids, and meanwhile the nucleobases with different numbers and specific orders can preserve and transmit their unique genetic information [201]. After the accomplishment of Human Genome Project and the great progress of nucleic acids synthetic technologies, nucleic acids have been given much attention both in basic research and clinical applications, such as accurately identifying their sequences and reproducibly quantifying their expression levels.…”