Electrochemical aptasensors for pathogenic detection toward point‐of‐care diagnostics

Abstract

A biosensor system refers to a biomedical device, which detects biological, chemical, or biochemical components by converting those signals to an electrical signal by utilizing and uniting physical or chemical transducer with biorecognition elements. An electrochemical biosensor is generally based on the reaction of either production or consumption of electrons under a three‐electrode system. Biosensor systems are exploited in a wide range of areas, such as medicine, agriculture, husbandry, food, industry, environment protection, quality control, waste disposal, and the military. Pathogenic infections are the third leading cause of death worldwide after cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Therefore, there is an urgent need for effective diagnostic tools to control food, water, and soil contamination result in protecting human life and health. Aptamers are peptide or oligonucleotide‐based molecules that show very high affinity to their targets that are produced from large pools of random amino acid or oligonucleotide sequences. Generally, aptamers have been utilized for fundamental sciences and clinical implementations for their target‐specific affinity and have been intensely exploited for different kinds of biosensor applications for approximately 30 years. The convergence of aptamers with biosensor systems enabled the construction of voltammetric, amperometric, and impedimetric biosensors for the detection of specific pathogens. In this review, electrochemical aptamer biosensors were evaluated by discussing the definition, types, and production techniques of aptamers, the advantages of aptamers as a biological recognition element against their alternatives, and a wide range of aptasensor examples from literature in the detection of specific pathogens.

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.…”