Impedimetric Genosensor Based on Graphene Nanoribbons for Detection and Identification of Oncogenic Types of Human Papillomavirus

BACKGROUND: Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a large group of viruses that infect skin and mucosa causing warts and epithelial tumors known as papillomas. Although HPV can be contracted during sexual intercourse including vaginal, anal and oral sex, skin‐to‐skin contact is sufficient to cause infection. Asymptomatic patients can have the virus and pass it on without knowing it. Due to the scarcity of rapid and inexpensive methods available to identify HPV serotypes, herein we report an electrochemical genosensor as an alternative to current molecular and serological HPV identification methods. Graphene nanoribbons were used as transducers to immobilize MY11 DNA probe, a degenerate probe generally employed in polymerase chain reaction amplification of a broad spectrum of HPV DNA types. RESULTS: Cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy were used to characterize the construction of the platform and the biodetection process. Our results suggest that oncogenic subtypes of HPV are quickly detected and identified in the picogram range. Impedimetric responses grouped for known genotypically related HPV 51, 53 and 66 subtypes related to anogenital lesions. Additionally, our genosensor was able to successfully detect HPV types 16 and 18 in cervical specimens (cDNA samples) at concentrations of 1 amol L⁻¹, 100 amol L⁻¹, 100 fmol L⁻¹, 50 pmol L⁻¹ and 100 pmol L⁻¹ with a detection limit of 3.5 and 1.2 amol L⁻¹ for HPV 16 and HPV 18, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed genosensor platform can be considered a new tool for detecting and identifying HPV genotypes. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry (SCI).