Optical nanomaterial-based detection of biomarkers in liquid biopsy

Liquid biopsy, which is a minimally invasive procedure as an alternative to tissue biopsy, has been introduced as a new diagnostic/prognostic measure. By screening disease-related markers from the blood or other biofluids, it promises early diagnosis, timely prognostication, and effective treatment of the diseases. However, there will be a long way until its realization due to its conceptual and practical challenges. The biomarkers detected by liquid biopsy, such as circulating tumor cell (CTC) and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), are extraordinarily rare and often obscured by an abundance of normal cellular components, necessitating ultra-sensitive and accurate detection methods for the advancement of liquid biopsy techniques. Optical biosensors based on nanomaterials open an important opportunity in liquid biopsy because of their enhanced sensing performance with simple and practical properties. In this review article, we summarized recent innovations in optical nanomaterials to demonstrate the sensitive detection of protein, peptide, ctDNA, miRNA, exosome, and CTCs. Each study prepares the optical nanomaterials with a tailored design to enhance the sensing performance and to meet the requirements of each biomarker. The unique optical characteristics of metallic nanoparticles (NPs), quantum dots, upconversion NPs, silica NPs, polymeric NPs, and carbon nanomaterials are exploited for sensitive detection mechanisms. These recent advances in liquid biopsy using optical nanomaterials give us an opportunity to overcome challenging issues and provide a resource for understanding the unknown characteristics of the biomarkers as well as the mechanism of the disease.