A novel photoelectrochemical array platform for ultrasensitive multiplex detection and subtype identification of HPV genes

The rapid, low-cost and user-friendly methods for nucleic acid detection is urgently needed. Here we developed a miniaturized and convenient photoelectrochemical biosensor array (PEBA) platform for multiplexing and simultaneous detection of nucleic acid. The array system containing nine sensing units was integrated on one piece of conductive glass by laser etching and screen printing. Moreover, human papillomavirus (HPV), the main cause of cervical cancer, was selected as the model marker to evaluate the applicability of the fabricated PEBA. The proposed PEBA for HPV genotyping involved the TiO2@Au nanoparticles (NPs) as the photoelectrochemical (PEC) material and CdS quantum dots (CdS QDs)-labeled DNA hairpin probe anchored on the TiO2@Au NPs as the recognition element. With the addition of HPV target, the probe undergoes a significant conformational change and forces CdS QDs away from TiO2@Au, resulting in decreased PEC signals. The established array platform coupled with nucleic acid amplification exhibited high sensitivity as low as 0.1 copies/μL and a linear range of 0.6-600 copies/μL for nine HPV genotyping. Method evaluation with 40 clinical samples including 20 HPV-positive and 20 negative samples, gave a 97.5% concordance result in comparison with commercial kits. The genotyping results obtained by the PEBA reveal that HPV52, HPV18, and HPV11 are the most prevalent genotypes in positive samples, which is in good concordance with the official report concerning the trend of HPV prevalence among women with cervical lesions in Shenzhen. The designed PEBA platform has potential applications in extensive fields like biomedicine analysis and clinical healthcare diagnosis.