Recent Advances in Aptamer Discovery and Applications

Aptamers are short, single-stranded DNA, RNA, or synthetic XNA molecules that can be developed with high affinity and specificity to interact with any desired targets. They have been widely used in facilitating discoveries in basic research, ensuring food safety and monitoring the environment. Furth...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Yang Zhang, Bo Shiun Lai, Mario Juhas
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2019-03-01
Series:Molecules
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/24/5/941
Description
Summary:Aptamers are short, single-stranded DNA, RNA, or synthetic XNA molecules that can be developed with high affinity and specificity to interact with any desired targets. They have been widely used in facilitating discoveries in basic research, ensuring food safety and monitoring the environment. Furthermore, aptamers play promising roles as clinical diagnostics and therapeutic agents. This review provides update on the recent advances in this rapidly progressing field of research with particular emphasis on generation of aptamers and their applications in biosensing, biotechnology and medicine. The limitations and future directions of aptamers in target specific delivery and real-time detection are also discussed.
ISSN:1420-3049