Microfluidic Electrokinetic Preconcentration Chips: Enhancing the detection of nucleic acids and exosomes

Over the past few years, the detection of biological analytes has intensively been studied to understand the biodiagnostics of various diseases [1]. Some of the analytes that have been used as biomarkers for specific diseases include cell-free nucleic acids, (for example, DNA), messenger RNA (mRNA) and microRNA (miRNA) [2]-[5], circulating tumor-specific nucleic acids [circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) and ctRNA] [6]-[8], exosomes [9], [10], and circulating tumor cells [11]. These biomolecules are known to be effective indicators that can diagnose the presence of a potential disease even if their concentration changes slightly [12].