Abstract
Aptamers are synthetic bio-receptors of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or ribonucleic acid (RNA) origin selected by the systematic evolution of ligands (SELEX) process that bind a broad range of target analytes with high affinity and specificity. So far, electrochemical biosensors have come up as a simple and sensitive method to utilize aptamers as a bio-recognition element. Numerous aptamer based sensors have been developed for clinical diagnostics, food, and environmental monitoring and several other applications are under development. Aptasensors are capable of extending the limits of current analytical techniques in clinical diagnostics, food, and environmental sample analysis. However, the potential applications of aptamer based electrochemical biosensors are unlimited; current applications are observed in the areas of food toxins, clinical biomarkers, and pesticide detection. This review attempts to enumerate the most representative examples of research progress in aptamer based electrochemical biosensing principles that have been developed in recent years. Additionally, this account will discuss various current developments on aptamer-based sensors toward heavy metal detection, for various cardiac biomarkers, antibiotics detection, and also on how the aptamers can be deployed to couple with antibody-based assays as a hybrid sensing platform. Aptamers can be used in various applications, however, this account will focus on the recent advancements made toward food, environmental, and clinical diagnostic application. This review paper compares various electrochemical aptamer based sensor detection strategies that have been applied so far and used as a state of the art. As illustrated in the literature, aptamers have been utilized extensively for environmental, cancer biomarker, biomedical application, and antibiotic detection and thus have been extensively discussed in this article.
Highlights
Aptamers can be classified as small nucleic acid ligands of single-strand deoxyribonucleic acid, ribonucleic acid (RNA), and peptide molecules [1]
Since the first discovery of the aptamer sequence, a variety of electrochemical aptasensors have been reported with enormous attention on their possible applications in clinical diagnostics
Upon interaction with Pb2+, the aptamer probe undergoes a conformational switch from a single-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) to the G-quadruplex structure, causing the GR with assembled TH to be released from the electrode surface into solution
Summary
Aptamers can be classified as small nucleic acid ligands of single-strand deoxyribonucleic acid (ssDNA), ribonucleic acid (RNA), and peptide molecules [1]. Their binding affinities are highly target-dependent (ranges from pico-molar to nano-molar scales) for diverse protein targets [3] Aside from such characteristics, they have demonstrated great promise in sensing applications since aptamers can be created by chemical synthesis and can be readily modified with some functional groups and linkers [4,5]. Other than the significant sensitivity and specificity that aptamers offer, they provide a broad range of benefits over other existing molecules in terms of flexibility, cost, and stability Such characteristics have significantly favored their application as ultra-selective bio-recognition elements for diverse biotechnology related applications. This review compares different electrochemical aptasensors detection strategies that have so far been applied
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