Electrochemical Biosensors in the Diagnosis of Acute and Chronic Leukemias

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Early leukemia diagnosis remains the indispensable goal for effectively treating these diseases. The presence of specific genetic alterations can be helpful for a certain diagnosis. In this regard, biosensors identifying deoxyribonucleic acid molecules as analytes are DNA biosensors. Electrochemical biosensors are a specific form of DNA biosensors that determine the variation in the electrical characteristics of the nano-sensing interface. Furthermore, electrochemical biosensors produced employing different nanomaterials can augment specificity and sensitivity to identify leukemia-related genes, such as BCR/ABL (a fusion gene of chronic myeloid leukemia) or PML/RARα (the promyelocytic leukemia/retinoic acid receptor alpha useful for the diagnosis of promyelocytic leukemia). Thus, the present review reports the preclinical and clinical data existing in the literature on the possible use of such sensors in the diagnosis of leukemic disease. ABSTRACT: Until now, morphological assessment with an optical or electronic microscope, fluorescence in situ hybridization, DNA sequencing, flow cytometry, polymerase chain reactions, and immunohistochemistry have been employed for leukemia identification. Nevertheless, despite their numerous different vantages, it is difficult to recognize leukemic cells correctly. Recently, the electrochemical evaluation with a nano-sensing interface seems an attractive alternative. Electrochemical biosensors measure the modification in the electrical characteristics of the nano-sensing interface, which is modified by the contact between a biological recognition element and the analyte objective. The implementation of nanosensors is founded not on single nanomaterials but rather on compilating these components efficiently. Biosensors able to identify the molecules of deoxyribonucleic acid are defined as DNA biosensors. Our review aimed to evaluate the literature on the possible use of electrochemical biosensors for identifying hematological neoplasms such as acute promyelocytic leukemia, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and chronic myeloid leukemia. In particular, we focus our attention on using DNA electrochemical biosensors to evaluate leukemias.