Aptameric Fluorescent Biosensors for Liver Cancer Diagnosis

Abstract

Liver cancer is a prevalent global health concern with a poor 5-year survival rate upon diagnosis. Current diagnostic techniques using the combination of ultrasound, CT scans, MRI, and biopsy have the limitation of detecting detectable liver cancer when the tumor has already progressed to a certain size, often leading to late-stage diagnoses and grim clinical treatment outcomes. To this end, there has been tremendous interest in developing highly sensitive and selective biosensors to analyze related cancer biomarkers in the early stage diagnosis and prescribe appropriate treatment options. Among the various approaches, aptamers are an ideal recognition element as they can specifically bind to target molecules with high affinity. Furthermore, using aptamers, in conjunction with fluorescent moieties, enables the development of highly sensitive biosensors by taking full advantage of structural and functional flexibility. This review will provide a summary and detailed discussion on recent aptamer-based fluorescence biosensors for liver cancer diagnosis. Specifically, the review focuses on two promising detection strategies: (i) Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) and (ii) metal-enhanced fluorescence for detecting and characterizing protein and miRNA cancer biomarkers.

Bioengineered Organoids Offer New Possibilities for Liver Cancer Studies: A Review of Key Milestones and Challenges

“…Historically, finding effective treatments for patients with liver cancers, particularly hepatobiliary cancers, has been challenging due to the lack of appropriate research models. Hence, accurate estimation of the pathophysiology and treatment of hepatic cancer by subtype requires the development of new therapeutic and diagnostic substitutes to address the existing challenges in hepatology research [7][8][9][10].…”

Aptamers’ Potential to Fill Therapeutic and Diagnostic Gaps

“…However, other diseases such as neurodegenerative or cardiovascular diseases, among others, have also been targeted in aptamer studies [ 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 ]. In addition to the development of aptamers as therapeutic molecules, other notable approaches include the applications of aptamers as biosensors, through the development of aptamer-based devices and platforms for disease diagnosis [ 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 ], and as molecular tools to deliver therapeutic drugs to specific target cells, as well as to improve access to malignant molecules whose inactivation is desirable [ 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 ]. These applications have driven the significant development of the aptamers-based discipline in recent years.…”