Aptamer-based diagnostic and therapeutic approaches in animals: Current potential and challenges

• Main Authors: Sapna Devi, Neelesh Sharma, Touqeer Ahmed, Zul I. Huma, Savleen Kour, Bijayalaxmi Sahoo, Amit Kumar Singh, Nino Macesic, Sung Jin Lee, Mukesh Kumar Gupta
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2021-09-01
• Series: Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences
• Subjects: Aptamer; Aptasensor; Point-of-care; RNA Spiegelmers; Targeted therapy; Theranostics
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1319562X21004009

Fast and precise diagnosis of infectious and non-infectious animal diseases and their targeted treatments are of utmost importance for their clinical management. The existing biochemical, serological and molecular methods of disease diagnosis need improvement in their specificity, sensitivity and cost and, are generally not amenable for being used as points-of-care (POC) device. Further, with dramatic changes in environment and farm management practices, one should also arm ourselves and prepare for emerging and re-emerging animal diseases such as cancer, prion diseases, COVID-19, influenza etc. Aptamer – oligonucleotide or short peptides that can specifically bind to target molecules – have increasingly become popular in developing biosensors for sensitive detection of analytes, pathogens (bacteria, virus, fungus, prions), drug residues, toxins and, cancerous cells. They have also been proven successful in the cellular delivery of drugs and targeted therapy of infectious diseases and physiological disorders. However, the in vivo application of aptamer-mediated biosensing and therapy in animals has been limited. This paper reviews the existing reports on the application of aptamer-based biosensors and targeted therapy in animals. It also dissects the various modifications to aptamers that were found to be successful in in vivo application of the aptamers in diagnostics and therapeutics. Finally, it also highlights major challenges and future directions in the application of aptamers in the field of veterinary medicine.