A self-cycling and self-verifying electrochemical and colorimetric dual-modal biosensor for oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) saliva detection

The early and precise detection of oral cancer overexpression 1 (ORAOV 1) holds significant promise for improving the five-year survival rate of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Herein, we propose a self-cycling and self-verifying electrochemical/colorimetric dual-modal biosensor for ORAOV 1 detection in saliva. This cutting-edge biosensor combines a fuel-powered DNA nanomachine with gold-platinum nanoparticles (AuPt) modified zirconium-based metal-organic framework (AuPt@UiO-66) composites. The presence of ORAOV 1 induces the autonomous movement of DNA nanomachines with the help of AuPt-modified fuel DNA. This results in the production of significant quantities of AuPt@UiO-66 precipitates and signal strands (S). By leveraging both electrocatalytic activity and peroxide-like catalytic properties of AuPt@UiO-66, electrochemical/colorimetric dual-channel signals can be generated. The experimental results demonstrated that the electrochemical mode is highly sensitive to ORAOV 1, with a detection limit of 9.16 aM. Although colorimetric mode has moderate sensitivity, it enables signals to be visualized with the naked eye. These two modes can validate each other, improving the accuracy of detection. More importantly, it can effectively discriminate between cancer patients and healthy individuals with good accuracy (AUC = 1), providing new insights into the early and precise diagnosis of OSCC.