Cancer kills more than 8 million people per year, and it is one of the most frequent causes of death globally. Blood samples, or other body fluids, can contain cancer biomarkers such as circulating free tumor nucleic acids (ctNA), promising for early cancer detection in liquid biopsies. Detecting ctNA in the blood is challenging because of the low ctNA concentration and the low frequency of mutations compared to wild-type sequences. Nanotechnology bioelectronics methods can help to address this challenge. In particular, the Scanning Tunneling Microscopic (STM)-assisted break junctions method (STM-BJ) has recently allowed the first demonstration of detection and identification of RNA from E.Coli via single-molecule conductance. This is an ideal emerging technique for liquid biopsy bioelectronics since it is extremely sensitive, specific, and non-invasive.<br/>This work focuses on characterizing ctNAs using the STM-BJ to investigate an effective method for their ultra-sensitive detection in complex samples. The study's central hypothesis is that the sequences of ctNAs can be used to detect cancers by finding their unique electronic fingerprints. We focus the study on KRAS, BRAF, and NRAS as effective cancer biomarkers, in agreement with data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC). We have already obtained preliminary data for wild-type and mutated RNA sequences for KRAS ctRNA. Our initial analysis and the results pave the way for the early detection of bioelectronics fingerprints from biomarkers, such as ctDNA and ctRNA, through liquid biopsy using nanotechnology. This emerging method may allow beginning treatments early, potentially saving many lives from cancer patients.

New method to detect cancer biomarkers electrically using single-molecule techniques for liquid biopsy applications

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.