Introduction/Background Cervical cancer is predominantly caused by persistent infection with high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV), especially HPV16 and HPV18 subtypes. Hence, HPV testing in combination with cytology is becoming a part of screening programs. Current commercial tests are relatively expensive, and novel HPV testing assays are thus being developed, which would be inexpensive, rapid and reliable.

Methodology Electrochemical detection techniques technique can be faster, cheaper, and simpler alternatives to standard analytical techniques. Recently, we successfully developed an electrochemical (EC) DNA biosensor for detection of HPV16 and HPV18 genotypes (R. Sebuyoya et al., Biosens. Bioelectron. X, 2022, 12, 100224.). We showed the capability of a biosensor using gold screen-printed electrodes (AuSPEs) for direct detection of DNA from HPV16/18. We used LAMP isothermal amplification instead of PCR to readily amplify HPV DNA, followed by coupling of LAMP products with the capture probe immobilized at the surface of the AuSPE and with final EC detection.

Results We showed that the designed primers and probes had excellent selectivity and specificity by comparing HPV-positive and HPV-negative cancer cell lines. In order to evaluate the applicability of our biosensor in clinical settings, we applied the AuSPE-based biosensor to fifteen clinical samples with and without HPV16/18 infection at different stages of a disease and compared EC results to PCR as a gold standard. Results showed that for HPV16, the sensitivity of our assay was 86% and specificity was 100%, while for HPV18 the sensitivity of our assay was 100% and specificity was 90%.

Conclusion Our data suggested a great capability of the developed biosensor to detect cervical oncoviruses from the two most common oncogenic HPV types, HPV16 and HPV18.

Disclosures Support from AZV NU21–08-00057 and BBMRI-CZ no. LM2018125 is acknowledged.