Electrochemical Biosensors in the Diagnosis of Acute and Chronic Leukemias

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.