Nanoribbon Biosensor-Based Detection of Three Different Types of Non-Coding RNAs in Plasma for Early Revelation of Urogenital Cancers in Humans

Urogenital cancers represent one of leading causes of death, and thus novel simple, highly sensitive and reliable methods are required for their revelation at early stages in order to provide effective therapy and improve patients’ survival rate. Here we demonstrate parallel rapid label-free detection of a pool of (urogenital cancer)-associated non-coding RNA molecules of three different types — microRNAs, circular RNAs (circRNAs) and small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) — in human blood with sub-femtomolar concentration sensitivity. This is achieved by employing a biosensor, whose nanotechnology-based sensor chip bears an array of oligonucleotide-sensitised silicon-on-insulator (SOI) nanoribbons fabricated using a ‘top-down’ technology. The simultaneous detection of different types of cancer-associated ncRNAs in one sample will increase the reliability of the diagnostic results, helping to avoid both false-positives and false-negatives. Owing to the high detection sensitivity, which reaches several thousands of target ncRNA molecules in 1 mL of the analysed sample, the nanoribbon biosensor proposed herein represents a promising tool for early revelation of urogenital cancers in humans.