Electrochemical sensing of microRNAs: avenues and paradigms

Twenty years has passed since the first discovery of microRNA (miRNA) lin-4 in Caenorhabditis elegans. Over the last two decades, the study of miRNAs has attracted tremendous attention. These new stars of biomarkers are naturally occurring non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression posttranscriptionally and have been demonstrated to be dysregulated in many diseases. Since their profiles reflect pathological conditions, miRNAs have recently been proposed as biomarkers of the onset, prognosis and risk of diseases, as well as in the classification of different types of cancer. The establishment of miRNA profiles for diseases and the detection of different types and levels of miRNAs in biological samples are therefore critical milestones in diagnostics. This provides powerful impetus and a growing demand for researchers to develop simple analytical techniques to allow for an accurate, sensitive, selective, and cost effective miRNA analysis at point-of-care settings. Among several methods proposed for miRNA detection, electrochemical nucleic acid biosensors exhibit many attractive features and could play a leading role in future miRNA detection and quantification. This review gives an overview of recent advances in the rapidly growing area of electrochemical detection of miRNAs. The fundamentals of the different strategies adopted for miRNA detection are discussed and some examples of relevant approaches are highlighted, along with future prospects and challenges.