Aptamers and Aptasensors for Highly Specific Recognition and Sensitive Detection of Marine Biotoxins: Recent Advances and Perspectives

Abstract

Marine biotoxins distribute widely, have high toxicity, and can be easily accumulated in water or seafood, exposing a serious threat to consumer health. Achieving specific and sensitive detection is the most effective way to prevent emergent issues caused by marine biotoxins; however, the previous detection methods cannot meet the requirements because of ethical or technical drawbacks. Aptamers, a kind of novel recognition element with high affinity and specificity, can be used to fabricate various aptasensors (aptamer-based biosensors) for sensitive and rapid detection. In recent years, an increasing number of aptamers and aptasensors have greatly promoted the development of marine biotoxins detection. In this review, we summarized the recent aptamer-related advances for marine biotoxins detection and discussed their perspectives. Firstly, we summarized the sequences, selection methods, affinity, secondary structures, and the ion conditions of all aptamers to provide a database-like information; secondly, we summarized the reported aptasensors for marine biotoxins, including principles, detection sensitivity, linear detection range, etc.; thirdly, on the basis of the existing reports and our own research experience, we forecast the development prospects of aptamers and aptasensors for marine biotoxins detection. We hope this review not only provides a comprehensive summary of aptamer selection and aptasensor development for marine biotoxins, but also arouses a broad readership amongst academic researchers and industrial chemists.

Marine Toxins Detection by Biosensors Based on Aptamers

“…Although aptasensors have been widely used in different fields [102][103][104][105][106][107][108], great efforts still need to be made in the following respects: (1) the optimization of aptamer selection process. Although some aptamers for marine toxins have been selected, it is still not sufficient for a large amount of marine toxins with categories of more than 1000.…”

Aptamer-based and immunosorbents

“…Once the sequence is selected, aptamers are produced by a chemical way without requiring mammals. Some aptamers are characterized by dissociation equilibrium constants similar to those of antibodies as recently reported for different types of target molecules (4) and in particular for marine biotoxins (5). While antibodies have been widely used for the development of bioassays such as the well-known ELISA methods or sensors, immunosorbents have already largely proven their effectiveness in selectively retaining or extracting different types of molecules in terms of size and of physico-chemical properties.…”

“…Numerous immunosorbents are now available on the market and their use has been validated for numerous applications, particularly for food analysis (12). Various analytical aptamer-based methods have been developed, including enzyme-linked oligonucleotide assay (ELONA or ALISA, variant of ELISA with aptamers instead of antibodies) (3) or biosensors ("aptasensors") (5,13,14). The use of aptamers as SPE sorbents (i.e.…”

Magnetic Beads in Marine Toxin Detection: A Review

“…Oceans and their resources have sustained nations for millennia, with seafood being a strong part of cultural identity and tradition. Marine toxins accumulate in shellfish, fish and other seafood, and, even if they do not all represent a threat for the hosting organism, they can be hazardous for human health, and have thus drawn attention from food safety agencies, the seafood industry and scientists worldwide [1]. The presence of marine toxins can have socio-economic impacts, including the closure of production and recreational areas, as well as enforcing changes in the diet of entire populations [2].…”