On-Electrode Synthesis of Shape-Controlled Hierarchical Flower-Like Gold Nanostructures for Efficient Interfacial DNA Assembly and Sensitive Electrochemical Sensing of MicroRNA

The performance for biomolecular detection is closely associated with the interfacial structure of a biosensor, which profoundly affects both thermodynamics and kinetics of the assembly, binding and signal transduction of biomolecules. Herein, it is reported on a one-step and template-free on-electrode synthesis method for making shape-controlled gold nanostructures on indium tin oxide substrates, which provide an electrochemical sensing platform for ultrasensitive detection of nucleic acids. Thus-prepared hierarchical flower-like gold nanostructures (HFGNs) possess large surface area that can readily accommodate the assembly of DNA probes for subsequent hybridization detection. It is found that the sensitivity for electrochemical DNA sensing is critically dependent on the morphology of HFGNs. By using this new strategy, a highly sensitive electrochemical biosensor is developed for label-free detection of microRNA-21 (miRNA-21), a biomarker for lung cancers. Importantly, it is demonstrated that this biosensor can be employed to measure the miRNA-21 expression level from human lung cancer cell (A549) lysates and worked well in 100% serum, suggesting its potential for applications in clinical diagnosis and a wide range of bioanalysis.