Peptide Nucleic Acid-Based Biosensors for Cancer Diagnosis

Abstract

The monitoring of DNA and RNA biomarkers freely circulating in the blood constitutes the basis of innovative cancer detection methods based on liquid biopsy. Such methods are expected to provide new opportunities for a better understanding of cancer disease at the molecular level, thus contributing to improved patient outcomes. Advanced biosensors can advance possibilities for cancer-related nucleic acid biomarkers detection. In this context, peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) play an important role in the fabrication of highly sensitive biosensors. This review provides an overview of recently described PNA-based biosensors for cancer biomarker detection. One of the most striking features of the described detection approaches is represented by the possibility to detect target nucleic acids at the ultra-low concentration with the capability to identify single-base mutations.

<p>Preparation and SPECT/CT Imaging of ¹⁷⁷Lu-Labeled Peptide Nucleic Acid (PNA) Targeting CITED1: Therapeutic Evaluation in Tumor-Bearing Nude Mice</p>

“…It can be seen that higher cell uptake rate and slower cell clearance rate are specific manifestations of antisense peptide nucleic acid in K1 cells, which support the conclusion that antisense PNA can be used to modulate the transcription and translation of tumor genes, and that their high stability and strong binding affinity make these molecules useful for detecting tumor cells. 16,34 Preclinical studies of 68 GA-labeled ODNs for pulmonary malignancies have been designed to target the activated human K-ras oncogene; 35 an increasing number of prospective studies have begun to apply antisense therapy using 125 I or 111 In in patients with central nervous system and cervical cancers. [36][37][38] This study once again confirmed the feasibility of antisense imaging and further explored the efficacy of antisense therapy using 177 Lu coupling, which is based on study showed that PNA can be metabolized in cells over several months.…”

PNA-Based MicroRNA Detection Methodologies

“…In addition, their use in electrochemical biosensors has shown to offer some intrinsic advantages over the use of standard DNA. Indeed, due to the neutral nature of the PNA backbone, most of the reported biosensors rely on the primary PNA-RNA hybridization event, which in turn induces the accumulation of negative charge on the sensor surface [54]. This charge accumulation can be used as signal per se, but, in order to enhance the sensitivity of the devices, additional reporter units, such as nanoparticles (gold, iron oxide, silver), metal complexes or organometallic compounds (such as ferrocene or ferricyanide), are often exploited [55,56].…”

PNA Clamping in Nucleic Acid Amplification Protocols to Detect Single Nucleotide Mutations Related to Cancer

“…The resulting hybrid PNA-nucleic acid duplexes exhibit high thermal stability. Since PNAs were first developed, they have attracted attention due to their potential utility in diagnostic and pharmaceutical applications [44][45][46][47][48][49][50].…”