Recent advances in aptamer applications for analytical biochemistry

Abstract

Aptamers are typically defined as relatively short (20–60 nucleotides) single-stranded DNA or RNA molecules that bind with high affinity and specificity to various types of targets. Aptamers are frequently referred to as “synthetic antibodies” but are easier to obtain, less expensive to produce, and in several ways more versatile than antibodies. The beginnings of aptamers date back to 1990, and since then there has been a continual increase in aptamer publications. The intent of the present account was to focus on recent original research publications, i.e., those appearing in 2019 through April 2020, when this account was written. A Google Scholar search of this recent literature was performed for relevance-ranking of articles. New methods for selection of aptamers were not included. Nine categories of applications were organized and representative examples of each are given. Finally, an outlook is offered focusing on “faster, better, cheaper” application performance factors as key drivers for future innovations in aptamer applications.

Point of Care Diagnostic Devices for Rapid Detection of Novel Coronavirus (SARS-nCoV19) Pandemic: A Review

“…Once the complex of aptamer and viral protein is formed, antibodies are added to it. This Ag-Ab complex is detected using an anti-antibody labeled with the fluorescence probe and observed under the fluorescent microscope (Zon, 2020). Being a nanodevice, this technique is very sensitive and a very small sample volume is needed, but it requires a sophisticated instrument for assay, which is its main drawback.…”

Recent Advances and a Roadmap to Aptamer-Based Sensors for Bloodstream Infections

“…This results in the shift of fluorescence emission from one fluorophore to the other and thereby change in the fluorescence color. 244 The first assay using MABs was done to detect the Tat protein of HIV-1. The study reported that the advantage of using MABs was that these require half the length of target sequence, that is, just 8 nucleotides in comparison to the general molecular beacons.…”

“…In the fluorophore-quencher pair, upon target binding, the ability of quencher to act upon the fluorophore reduces; however, in case of FRET pairs, the conformational change in the aptamer alters the distance between the fluorophore pairs and further alters the energy transfer in between them. This results in the shift of fluorescence emission from one fluorophore to the other and thereby change in the fluorescence color . The first assay using MABs was done to detect the Tat protein of HIV-1.…”

Aptasensors for mycotoxins in foods: Recent advances and future trends

“…Aptamers are typically a kind of short single‐stranded oligonucleotide (DNA or RNA) sequences with a length of about 25–80 bases that mimic monoclonal antibodies and can be artificially synthesized via a selection process named systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX) in vitro (Ni et al., 2021). Although aptamers are commonly recognized as “chemical antibody” or “the fourth‐generation antibody,” compared to antibodies, they not only possess high binding affinity and specificity, but also demonstrate superiority of convenient generation, easy modification, good stability, low manufacturing cost, nontoxicity, little batch‐to‐batch differences, reversible folding features, nonimmunogenicity, and wide range of targets including small molecules, peptides, proteins, cells, and tissues (Ni et al., 2021; Zon, 2020). As a highly selective biological recognition element, aptamers have attracted considerable interest for constructing various types of aptasensors, displaying remarkable advantages related to high specificity and outstanding sensitivity, low cost, small consumption of reagents and samples, simplicity, and high‐throughput analysis (Cheng, Liu, et al., 2020; Yi et al., 2020; Zhang, Fan, et al., 2020).…”