Molecular diagnostics for infectious disease and cancer based on glass capillary nanopore sensing

Glass capillary nanopores have been widely used for resistive pulse sensing and ionic current rectification-based nanopore sensing due to their excellent mechanical properties, simple fabrication, easy surface modification, and low production cost. These nanopores have demonstrated great potential in detecting diverse biomarkers, including nucleic acids, proteins, cell vesicles, viruses, and bacteria. Here, we highlight recent advances in molecular diagnostics using glass capillary nanopores, especially focusing on the detection of infectious disease pathogens and cancer-associated microRNAs. By integrating precisely sized glass nanopipette-based nanopores with nucleic acid amplification techniques and well-designed probes, this sensing platform has emerged as a promising method for liquid biopsy from patient body fluids. In consideration of recent research on molecular diagnostics and the difficulties with glass capillary nanopipettes, we also discuss the future direction of molecular diagnostics using this tool.