Advancements in nanotechnologies have enabled the development of highly sensitive and highly specific electrochemical sensors, making them attractive for the detection of mismatched base pairs in many genetic diseases. Electrochemical sensors show great promise since they are capable of precise DNA recognition and efficient signal transduction. Creative Biolabs has an experienced team with wide variety of expertise ranging from biomolecular interactions and genetic disease detection research to coating and characterization of thin solid metal films. We provide customized electrochemical biosensors or development services for genetic diseases detection research.
The detection of DNA sequence plays an important role in the diagnosis of genetic-related diseases and conditions, especially for early stage treatment and monitoring. Because of the complex nature of DNA, the detection of single or small numbers of base mismatches requires high sensitivity and specificity. Many detection techniques have been developed that rely upon target hybridization with radioactive, fluorescent, chemiluminescent, or other types of labeled probes. Besides, there are some indirect detection methods that are based on enzymes, which catalyze the generation of colorimetric, chemiluminescent, or fluorescent signals.
Electrochemical biosensors have recently found extensive applications for on-site biosensing and detection. While offering simplicity in operation and sample manipulation, the contemporary electrochemical biosensors also provide highly sensitive and specific measurements for a broad spectrum of biomolecules. The sample size required for current electrochemical biosensor is small and the detection time is relatively fast. Electrochemical biosensing for DNA diagnostics is becoming a very promising area of research and development.
Current electrochemical biosensors for DNA diagnostics include two schemes for biologic recognition. The most common scheme is hybridization-based DNA detection which uses nucleotides as the probe and targets elements. Under this circumstance, the performance of biosensors is highly dependent on the affinity between the target and probe. This detection system can either use a one probe versus one target scheme, a multiple probe versus single target scheme, or vice versa.
Another detection scheme is enzymatic-based DNA detection. In this scheme, DNA-related enzymes are introduced into the biorecognition system and changes in amount of these enzymes correlate to specific biologic process. For instance, when an biosensor experiences a specific process, the enzyme level increases or decreases, resulting in amplification or reduction of the signal. The enzymatic process is highly specific to a DNA sequence, which makes it ideal for DNA mismatch detection.
Fig.1 Schematic representation illustrating the principles for electrochemical DNA sensors. (Wei, 2010)
Electrochemical biosensors, coupling the inherent specificity of DNA recognition reactions with the high sensitivity of physical transducers, hold great promise for sequence-specific detection. These nanomaterial-based electro analytical bioplatforms have demonstrated enhanced sensitivity, selectivity, minimal interferences from biological matrices and prolonged stability. Our featured services include but not limited to the following:
Biosensors based on DNA, RNA are the most sensitive tools, due to a strong pairing of lined up nucleotide strands between bases in their complementary parts. With further development and integration of emerging technologies, electrochemical DNA sensors will become more prominent diagnostic tools for detecting a broad spectrum of genetic-related diseases and conditions. If you are interested in our services, please feel free to contact us for more information.
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