The Latest Achievements in the Construction of Influenza Virus Detection Aptasensors.

Ewelina Wędrowska,Elżbieta Piskorska,Tomasz Wandtke,Piotr Kopiński

doi:10.3390/v12121365

Ewelina Wędrowska, Elżbieta Piskorska + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/v12121365

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Journal: Viruses	Publication Date: Nov 30, 2020
Citations: 5	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Nicolaus Copernicus University

Abstract

Aptamers are short fragments of nucleic acids, DNA or RNA that have the ability to bind selected proteins with high specificity and affinity. These properties allow them to be used as an element of biosensors for the detection of specific proteins, including viral ones, which makes it possible to design valuable diagnostic tools. The influenza virus causes a huge number of human and animal deaths worldwide every year, and contributes to remarkable economic losses. In addition, in 2020, a new threat appeared—the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic. Both disease entities, especially in the initial stage of infection, are almost identical in terms of signs and symptoms. Therefore, a diagnostic solution is needed that will allow distinguishing between both pathogens, with high sensitivity and specificity; it should be cheap, quick and possible to use in the field, for example, in a doctor’s office. All the mentioned properties are met by aptasensors in which the detection elements are specific aptamers. We present here the latest developments in the construction of various types of aptasensors for the detection of influenza virus. Aptasensor operation is based on the measurement of changes in electric impedance, fluorescence or electric signal (impedimetric, fluorescence and electrochemical aptasensors, respectively); it allows both qualitative and quantitative determinations. The particularly high advancement for detecting of influenza virus concerns impedimetric aptasensors.

Highlights

There are many viruses in the environment that infect humans, other animals or both, around it.Some of them contribute to the development of diseases
The current work is a kind of update of the content of the article mentioned above—it focuses on the current reports on the use of aptamers in the diagnosis of the influenza virus
An ideal diagnostic test should be possible in the doctor’s office and the result should be available in a short time. This is crucial in preventing the spread of epidemics of viral diseases such as the flu and COVID-19

Summary

Introduction

There are many viruses in the environment that infect humans, other animals or both, around it. Short duration of chemical synthesis (a few days) relatively low cost of production high stability of the obtained particles—no variability between batches low immunogenicity affinity and specificity similar to monoclonal antibodies the possibility of increasing the affinity to the analyte by increasing the rounds of SELEX (systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment) high selectivity the ability to selectively adjust to selected extracellular and intracellular targets (proteins, nucleotides, amino acids, small molecules, ions, viruses, living cells) the possibility of their immobilization on many surfaces and coupling with nanoparticles and drugs small particle size compared to monoclonal antibodies ensures higher sensitivity and lowers the limits of detection of analytes ability to regenerate and re-use (renaturation after denaturation allows rebinding of the analyte) possibility of chemical modification without loss of binding capacity or performance possibility of adaptation to operation in non-standard temperatures, solvents, buffers. The current work is a kind of update of the content of the article mentioned above—it focuses on the current reports on the use of aptamers in the diagnosis of the influenza virus

Flu Virus Diagnosis

Impedimetric Aptasensors

Fluorescent Aptasensors

Electrochemical Aptasensors

Findings

Conclusions