A novel aptamer-based competition strategy for ultrasensitive electrochemical detection of leukemia cells

A robust, nanobiotechnology-based electrochemical cytosensing platform for the detection of acute leukemia cells was developed with high sensitivity, selectivity, acceptable rapidity and excellent extensibility. It utilized the competitive binding of cell-specific aptamers to acute leukemia cells and subsequent voltammetric quantification of the metal signature. Greatly enhanced sensitivity was achieved with dual signal amplification by using Fe ₃O₄ magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) as carriers to load a large amount of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and AuNP-catalyzed silver deposition. The proposed competitive cytosensor showed high sensitivity with a detection limit down to 10 cells. This simple and low-cost electrochemical cytosensing approach offers great promise to extend its application to early detection of human leukemia and possibly to other cancer cells.