[Frontiers in Bioscience 10, 37-46, January 1, 2005]

[Frontiers in Bioscience 10, 37-46, January 1, 2005]

ELECTROCHEMICAL BIOSENSORS FOR DNA ANALYSIS

Huangxian Ju and Hongtao Zhao

Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science (Ministry of Education of China), Department of Chemistry, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, P.R. China

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Abstract
2. Introduction
3. Principle of electrochemical DNA biosensing
4. Selectivity of electrochemical DNA biosensing
5. Amplification of electrochemical signal of DNA biosensors: 5.1. Combination with PCR; 5.2. Enzyme-amplified electrochemical biosensing; 5.3. Direct label-free electrochemical biosensing; 5.4. Nano-based electrochemical biosensing
6. Summary and perspective
7. Acknowledgement
8. References

1. ABSTRACT

Over the past few years, progress in electrochemical biosensors for DNA analysis is outstanding. This article briefly reviewed the principals of such biosensors, followed by a selection of topics that are of particular current interest. Selectivity and sensitivity are the two major challenges in DNA analysis. The former can be accomplished using peptide nucleic acids as probes, or relying on the DNA-mediated electron transfer. Special emphasis has been given to the efforts for high sensitivity, involving combination with polymerase chain reaction techniques, enzyme-labeled methods, direct label-free detection and nano-based techniques.