Highly sensitive and cost-effective portable sensor for early gastric carcinoma diagnosis

Facile and efficient early detection of cancer is a major challenge in healthcare. Herein we developed a novel sensor made from a polycarbonate (PC) membrane with nanopores, followed by sequence-specific Oligo RNA modification for early gastric carcinoma diagnosis. In this design, the gastric cancer antigen CA72-4 is specifically conjugated to the Oligo RNA, thereby inhibiting the electrical current through the PC membrane in a concentration-dependent manner. The device can determine the concentration of cancer antigen CA72-4 in the range from 4 to 14 U/mL, possessing a sensitivity of 7.029 µAU⁻¹ mLcm⁻² with a linear regression (R²) of 0.965 and a lower detection limit of 4 U/mL. This device has integrated advantages including high specificity and sensitivity and being simple, portable, and cost effective, which collectively enables a giant leap for cancer screening technologies towards clinical use. This is the first report to use RNA aptamers to detect CA72-4 for gastric carcinoma diagnosis.