A microfluidic DNA sensor array for real-time screening of 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 to 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 10 000 : 1. The miRNA concentrations in the patients with early-stage lung cancer are determined to be 6.5–263 times higher than those in healthy individuals, demonstrating the excellent feasibility of this sensor array for clinical applications for real-time screening of early-stage lung cancer.