Recent progress in electrochemical assessment of DNA based on nanostructured sensors

Screening the amount of DNA closely related to early diagnosis of diseases or decoding information in target DNA sequences for biological medicine, infectious identification, or forensic analysis are highly essential in our daily life. This review provides clear understanding of nanostructured sensors (i.e., functionalized electrode-based sensors and nanopores) working for electrochemical assessment of DNA, along with their recent advances and unaddressed issues. Crucial constituents for sensor functionalization, electrochemical techniques, and electrodes, used in functionalized electrode-based sensors are briefly introduced, followed by analysis of using this type of sensors for DNA determination and the comparison of performances such as dynamic ranges and detection limits with other similar works. Subsequently, nanopore sensors including porin-based and solid-state nanopores applied for DNA sequencing are the other interests of discussion in the review. Beyond the achievement of high-resolution DNA sequencing based on porins coupled with enzymatic components, commonly used methods to solid-state nanopore creation, practical use of solid-state nanopores in DNA analysis, and computational modeling for nucleobase pore-threading simulation are depicted in more detail. Finally, conclusions in relation to recent advances and future developments are described. This work offers a powerful guideline for electrochemical assessment of DNA using either functionalized electrode-based sensors or nanopores, enabling scientific groups to have an entire picture upon electrochemical nanodevices used for DNA characterization.