Rapid electrochemical biosensor for sensitive profiling of exosomal microRNA based on multifunctional DNA tetrahedron assisted catalytic hairpin assembly

• Published in: Biosensors & bioelectronics 2021-07, Vol.183, p.113205-113205, Article 113205
• Main Authors: Zhang, Ye, Zhang, Xiaohe, Situ, Bo, Wu, Yuan, Luo, Shihua, Zheng, Lei, Qiu, Yurong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biosensing Techniques; Catalysis; Catalytic hairpin assembly; DNA; Electrochemical biosensor; Electrochemical Techniques; Exosomal microRNA; MicroRNAs - genetics; Multifunctional DNA tetrahedron; Profiling
• ISSN: 0956-5663; 1873-4235
• DOI: 10.1016/j.bios.2021.113205

Profiling of exosomal microRNA (exo-miRNA) is very important for cancer diagnosis and treatment. However, rapid and sensitive determination the trace of exo-miRNA in clinical samples has not been developed. Herein, a robust electrochemical biosensor was proposed using multifunctional DNA tetrahedrons assisted catalytic hairpin assembly (MDTs-CHA) for exo-miRNA analysis. The MDTs-CHA, contained two multifunctional tetrahedrons (T1 and T2), leverage localized reaction and cascade amplification to enable rapid and ultrasensitive exo-miRNA analysis. Employing the MDTs-CHA, the electrochemical platform allowed quantitative measurement of exo-miRNA down to 7.2 aM in 30 min with good specificity. Furthermore, by profiling four tumor-associated exo-miRNAs (miR-1246, miR-221, miR-375, and miR-21) in a breast cancer cohort, this platform showed high efficiency (AUC: 0.989) and high sensitivity of 90.5% for breast tumors diagnoses, with 80% sensitivity for early diagnoses (stage I-IIa). Therefore, this platform has great potential in bioanalysis and clinical diagnostics. •Multifunctional DNA tetrahedron assisted catalytic hairpin assembly (MDTs-CHA) strategy was designed to detect exo-miRNA for the first time.•Benefiting from the MDTs-CHA amplification, this biosensor can detect the exo-miRNA down to 7.2 aM in 30 min with outstanding specificity, stability and reproducibility.•By profiling four tumor-associated exo-miRNAs in a breast cancer cohort, this platform showed high efficiency and sensitivity for breast tumors diagnoses.