A microfluidic DNA sensor array for real-time screening early-stage lung cancer by simultaneous detection of multiple miRNAs

Abstract

We present a DNA sensor array for simultaneous detection of four targeted miRNAs in serum for early-stage lung cancer screening. Owing to effective microfluidic enrichment coupled with ultrasensitive solid-liquid capacitive sensing, the detection limit is as low as 12.84~24.69 aM, with a dynamic range of 0.1 fM~10 pM. The response time for each miRNA detection is only 30 s, and the total detection time is 120 s. The selectivity reaches above 10000: 1. The miRNA concentrations in the patients with early-stage lung cancer are determined being 6.5~263 times higher than those in healthy individuals, demonstrating an excellent feasibility of this sensor array for clinical application for real-time screening of early-stage lung cancer.