Nanoflower-shaped MXene-based field-effect transistor capable of ultrasensitive microRNA-21 determination towards efficient lung cancer diagnosis

Abstract

The miR-21 emerges as a pivotal biomarker for lung cancer diagnosis, However, the effective detection of miR-21 poses a significant challenge due to its low abundance and the complexity of clinical samples. A highly sensitive MXene-based field effect transistor (FET) sensor is proposed to detect miR-21, which is designed to diagnose lung cancer. The unique morphology of the nano-flower-shaped MXene (NSMX) has been characterized and the elements have been confirmed. The transconductance of MSMX increased 70.4% from 0.61 mS to 1.04 mS through secondary etching with hydrogen peroxide and sodium hydroxide. The NSMXFETs sensors achieved detection limits of 0.87 fM and a range of detection ranging from 1 fM to 100 nM. The NSMXFETs were systematically optimized in terms of aptamer sensitivity, incubation temperature and time, showing favourable specificity, reproducibility (RSD = 1.71%) and stability (decreased only by 0.59% in 1 month). In clinics, NSMXFETs were effective in differentiating lung cancer samples from healthy controls (p = 0.035 < 0.05) and showed a high correlation with target values (R² = 0.9753). The uniqueness of nano-flower-shaped MXene in clinical decision-making lies in their ability to assist biosensors in achieving highly sensitive detection of low-abundance biomarkers in clinical biosamples. We envision promising MXene-based FET sensors with nano-flower morphology to enhance sensitivity in detecting other biomarkers, providing efficient medical assistance for clinical diagnosis.