Biosensors based on aptamer‐conjugated gold nanoparticles: A review

Abstract

Simply synthetized gold nanoparticles have been highly used in medicine and biotechnology as a result of their biocompatibility, conductivity, and being easily functionalized with biomolecules such as aptamer. Aptamer-conjugated gold nanoparticle structures synergically possess characteristics of both aptamer and gold nanoparticles including high binding affinity, high biocompatibility, enhanced target selectivity, and long circulatory half-life. Aptamer-conjugated gold nanoparticles have extensively gained considerable attention for designing of biosensing systems due to their interesting optical and electrochemical features. Moreover, biosensors based on aptamer-gold nanoparticles are easy to use, with fast response, and inexpensive which make them ideal in individualized medicine, disease markers detection, food safety, and so forth. Moreover, due to high selectivity and biocompatibility of aptamer-gold nanoparticles, these biosensing platforms are ideal tools for targeted drug delivery systems. The application of this nanostructure as diagnostic and therapeutic tool has been developed for detection of cancer in the early stage by detecting cancer biomarkers, pathogens, proteins, toxins, antibiotics, adenosine triphosphate, and other small molecules. This review obviously demonstrates that this nanostructure effectively is applicable in the field of biomedicine and possesses potential of commercialization aims. K E Y W O R D S aptamer, biosensor, gold nanoparticles 1 42 CTCs Human Caucasian Burkitt′s lymphoma Electrochemical 4 cells/ml * 43 Acute lymphoblastic leukemia 3 cells/mL * Non-small cell lung cancer Electrochemical * * 44 Human acute lymphoblastic leukemia Electrochemical * * 48

Gold Nanoparticles-MWCNT Based Aptasensor for Early Diagnosis of Prostate Cancer

“…For instance, many studies employed multi-walled carbon nanotubes to sense cancer biomarkers down to picograms/mL [ 36 , 37 ]. Further, gold nano particles are also used due to their tendency to form bonds with thiol groups, which is important for biosensors [ 38 ]. The interaction with thiol-containing compounds is characteristic of AuNPs.…”

Highly Sensitive Aptasensor for Detecting Cancerous Exosomes Based on Clover-like Gold Nanoclusters

“…Aptamer-conjugated gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are widely applied in the construction of aptasensors. − AuNPs hold several additional advantages over bulk structures, including high stability and biological compatibility, convenient preparation, controlled size and shape, and surface functionalization. − Aptamers with high affinity and specificity to target molecules can be modified by various signal tags, allowing them to be monitored and controlled. − Aptamer-conjugated AuNPs are often used both as a capturing probe and, at the same time, as a signal probe in a dual “capture and detect” form, which can offer a highly multifunctional platform to facilitate bioanalytical and biomedical applications . For instance, Huang et al developed a colorimetric sensor to detect exosomes by utilizing the EpCAM aptamer–AuNP–primer complex as a signal probe .…”

Recent advances in aptamer-based targeted drug delivery systems for cancer therapy

“…As an important inorganic nanomaterial, gold nanoparticles have gained considerable attentions in biomedicine as result of their high surface-to-volume ratio, low-toxicity, excellent stability and biological compatibility ( Yang et al, 2015a ). Aptamer-conjugated gold nanomaterials (Apt-AuNPs), which synergically possess special advantageous properties of aptamers and gold nanoparticles, have been widely utilized in the field of cancer diagnosis and therapy ( Nooranian et al, 2021 ). A classical research from the Mirkin group employed target DNA molecules to form a polymeric network of nanoparticles for specifically detecting polynucleotide ( Elghanian et al, 1997 ).…”