Application of peptide nucleic acid in electrochemical nucleic acid biosensors

Abstract

The early diagnosis of major diseases, such as malignant tumors, has always been an important field of research. Through screening, early detection of such diseases, and timely and effective treatment can significantly improve the survival rate of patients and reduce medical costs. Therefore, the development of a simple detection method with high sensitivity and strong specificity, and that is low cost is of great significance for the diagnosis and prognosis of the disease. Electrochemical DNA biosensing analysis is a technology based on Watson Crick base complementary pairing, which uses the capture probe of a known sequence to specifically recognize the target DNA and detect its concentration. Because of its advantages of low cost, simple operation, portability, and easy miniaturization, it has been widely researched and has become a cutting-edge topic in the field of biochemical analysis and precision medicine. However, the existing methods for electrochemical DNA biosensing analysis have some shortcomings, such as poor stability and specificity of capture probes, insufficient detection sensitivity, and long detection cycles. In this review, we focus on improving the sensitivity and practicability of electrochemical DNA biosensing analysis methods and summarize a series of research work carried out by using electrically neutral peptide nucleic acid as an immobilized capture probe.

Peptide-Based Flavivirus Biosensors: From Cell Structure to Virological and Serological Detection Methods

“…PNA is designed with the N′ terminus on one side and the C′ terminus on the other, in comparison with DNA, which is arranged from the 3′ end to the 5′ end. Instead of having a backbone composed of sugar and phosphate, PNA molecules have a backbone made up of repeating polypeptides . Unlike DNA and RNA hybridization, PNA molecules have a neutral charge.…”

“…Instead of having a backbone composed of sugar and phosphate, PNA molecules have a backbone made up of repeating polypeptides. 76 Unlike DNA and RNA hybridization, PNA molecules have a neutral charge. Hence, they do not repel the negative charge of complementary DNA.…”

Label free electrochemical DNA biosensor for COVID-19 diagnosis

“…Thus, the use of nucleic acids (DNA, RNA) as well as analogues such as peptide nucleic acid (PNA) as a biorecognition element are proposed as an alternative to enhance biosensor selectivity and specificity [ 17 ]. PNA offers particular advantages due to its unique electrostatically neutral structure that contributes to its stronger binding affinity towards DNA/RNA targets without compromising specificity [ 18 , 19 ]. Among several available PNA systems, our pyrrolidinyl peptide nucleic acid (acpcPNA) [ 19 , 20 ] offers outstanding characteristics that make them a powerful sensing probe.…”

Metal‐free phthalimide‐labeled peptide nucleic acids for electrochemical biosensing applications

“…Focusing on the possibility to implement PNAs as probes in affinity bio-electrochemical sensors for nucleic acids, two main experimental protocols have been proposed. [6,7] A first one, termed "label-free," exploits either the intrinsic features of PNA molecules to obtain an analytical signal (e.g., the redox capacities of nucleobases, the electrical negative charge of DNA strand) or the redox response of an active compound dissolved in the working solution. A second approach requires the use of a covalently linked electroactive marker (i.e., an "external label").…”