Attomolar-Level Ultrasensitive and Multiplex microRNA Detection Enabled by a Nanomaterial Locally Assembled Microfluidic Biochip for Cancer Diagnosis

Non-invasive early diagnosis is of great significance in disease pathologic development and subsequent medical treatments, and microRNA (miRNA) detection has attracted critical attention in early cancer screening and diagnosis. High-throughput, sensitive, economic, and fast miRNA sensing platforms are necessary to realize the low-concentration miRNA detection in clinical diagnosis and biological studies. Here, we developed an attomolar-level ultrasensitive, rapid, and multiple-miRNA simultaneous detection platform enabled by nanomaterial locally assembled microfluidic biochips. This platform presents a large linear detection regime of 1 aM–10 nM, an ultralow detection limit of 0.146 aM with no amplification, a short detection time of 35 min with multiplex miRNA sensing capability, and a small sample volume consumption of 2 μL. The detection results of five miRNAs in real samples from breast cancer patients and healthy humans indicate its excellent capacity for practical applications in early cancer diagnosis. The proposed ultrasensitive, rapid, and multiple-miRNA detection microfluidic biochip platform is a universal miRNA detection approach and an important and valuable tool in early cancer screening and diagnosis as well as biological studies.