Development of non-invasive genosensor to diagnose pancreatic cancer using miRNA-196a

This work presents the development of a diagnostic device for pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest malignancies worldwide. The circulating pancreatic cancer biomarker miRNA-196a was utilized for the development of an electrochemical genosensor due to its stability in biological fluids. Immobilized single-stranded DNA conjugated with gold nanoparticles establishes a sensitive platform for the electrochemical detection of miRNA-196a. The sensor performance was evaluated for probe DNA-miRNA hybridization at optimum temperature (55 °C) using cyclic voltammetry and chronocoulometric techniques, achieving sensitivities of 51.10 µA pg-1 mL cm-2 and 18.28 µC pg-1 mL cm-2, respectively. The device exhibited a wide linear detection range of miRNA-196a from 14.9 aM to 14.9 nM. To the best of our knowledge, for already developed PDAC biosensors using a single biomarker or a panel of biomarkers, the widest detection range for miRNA-196a was reported as 0.05 fM to 50 pM by Guo et al. in 2018. Hence, the developed genosensor, having a detection limit of 14.9 aM and a wide detection range, may prove to be a promising tool in detecting pancreatic cancer at an early stage, and hence improve patient outcomes.