A proof-of-concept memristor strategy for sensing cervical cancer-related microenvironments

Cervical cancer remains one of the most prevalent gynecological malignancies and a leading cause of cancer-related mortality in women worldwide, particularly in low-income countries where effective screening programs are limited. However, current diagnostic methods such as cytology, HPV testing, and visual inspection still face challenges related to sensitivity, operator dependence, and processing complexity, highlighting the need for exploratory strategies that can sensitively probe tumor-associated microenvironmental changes. In this work, a memristor device with an Ag/BiFeO 3 /FTO structure was fabricated by magnetron sputtering and investigated as a proof-of-concept platform for differential sensing of HeLa cell-conditioned medium. The device exhibited pronounced alterations in current-voltage characteristics and resistance states upon exposure to conditioned medium derived from HeLa cells, thereby generating distinguishable electrical signatures relative to fresh culture medium. These findings suggest that the device is sensitive to microenvironmental changes associated with tumor cell metabolism under controlled in vitro conditions. In addition, a plausible mechanism is proposed in which tumor-associated metabolites and adsorbed interfacial species modulate conductive filament dynamics and charge transport pathways in the BiFeO 3 functional layer. Therefore, this work provides preliminary evidence that BiFeO 3 -based memristors may serve as an exploratory platform for tumor-associated microenvironment sensing, with future potential for adjunctive bioelectronic screening applications after further validation using broader biological models and clinical samples.