Cancer causes mutations in cellular DNA. Detecting these mutations in a patient's blood enables the most appropriate and effective anti-cancer treatments to be prescribed.However, detection is only possible in specialized centers, which is time-consuming and costly. To remedy this situation, scientists from the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Bio-Inspired Materials at the University of Fribourg have developed nanosensors that enable these mutations to be detected more quickly and more economically.

Alteration of the cell's genetic code, DNA, is an essential step in the onset and progression of cancer. A liquid biopsy can detect these mutations in blood and tissue and provide information on the type of cancer, its degree of malignancy, and, above all, its sensitivity or resistance to specific anti-cancer drugs. However, these analyses require specific equipment and specialized personnel and can only be carried out in specialized centers, making the procedure costly and time-consuming.

Fast, low-cost solution

To solve this problem, Dr. Samet Kocabey, a researcher at the University of Fribourg in Professor Curzio Rüegg's team, has designed nanosensors capable of detecting mutations in the genetic code at very low concentrations. “These sensors then generate a fluorescent signal that can easily be processed by equipment found in most hospitals and diagnostic laboratories,” explains Kocabey, ”the analysis requires little hands-on work and can be carried out in a day, compared with 3 to 5 days with current methods, and at a lower cost!”

Simplifying the detection of mutated DNA/RNA in this way makes diagnostics more accessible to a greater number of laboratories without the need for expensive equipment or specialist centers. These sensors can also be used to detect non-mutated RNA, extending their application to molecular biomedical research. Finally, they may pave the way for the development of rapid, simple, and inexpensive clinical tests for the detection of cancer mutations, which will naturally benefit a greater number of patients.

This project was supported by the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Bio-Inspired Materials, coordinated by the University of Fribourg. Sarah Cattin, head of the cell analysis facility, and Isabelle Gray, an NCCR summer intern, also contributed to the study.

The discovery has been patented by the University of Fribourg. The results of the research were recently published in the scientific journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics.

Reference:

Kocabey, S.; Cattin, S.; Gray, I.; Rüegg, C. Ultrasensitive Detection of Cancer-Associated Nucleic Acids and Mutations by Primer Exchange Reaction-Based Signal Amplification and Flow Cytometry. Biosensors and Bioelectronics 2025, 267, 116839.