Nanomaterials-Based Biosensors for the Detection of Prostate Cancer Biomarkers: Recent Trends and Future Perspective

Cancer is among the leading causes of death and an important barrier to improving life expectancy globally. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men worldwide. The detection of biomarkers in body fluids is the key topic for the diagnosis and prognosis of prostate cancer. Despite advances in prostate cancer detection methods, therapeutic agents and new biomarkers, prostate cancer remains a serious challenge. Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is widely recognized as an important biomarker for the diagnosis of prostate cancer although researchers have also investigated the use of alternative biomarkers. Design and development of novel biosensors for prostate cancer detection has become a hot research area with advances in nanotechnology aiding biosensor development. This article reviews recent achievements and progress that nanomaterials and nanotechnology have made in biomarkers based biosensors for prostate cancer detection and covers: i) PSA-targeted biosensors (immunosensors, aptamer-based, peptide-based and nanopore-based biosensors), ii) sarcosine oxidase-targeted biosensors, iii) other biomarkers based biosensors (prostate cancer antigen 3 (PCA3), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)) including dual biomarkers based biosensors (PSA-VEGF, PSA-PSMA, PSA-PCA3 and PSA-sarcosine). The aim of this review is to provide insights into how nanomaterials in combination with various biomarkers are now aiding biosensor development in prostate cancer diagnostics.