Nanoscaled aptasensors for multi-analyte sensing

• Published in: BioImpacts
• Main Authors: Mehdi Saberian-Borujeni, Mohammad Johari-Ahar, Hossein Hamzeiy, Jaleh Barar, Yadollah Omidi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tabriz University of Medical Sciences 2014-12-01
• Subjects: Aptamer; Aptasensor; Biosensor; Multi-analyte detection; SELEX
• Online Access: http://journals.tbzmed.ac.ir/BI/PDF/BI-4-205.pdf
• ISSN: 2228-5652; 2228-5660

Introduction: Nanoscaled aptamers (Aps), as short single-stranded DNA or RNA oligonucleotides, are able to bind to their specific targets with high affinity, upon which they are considered as powerful diagnostic and analytical sensing tools (the so-called "aptasensors"). Aptamers are selected from a random pool of oligonucleotides through a procedure known as "systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment". Methods: In this work, the most recent studies in the field of aptasensors are reviewed and discussed with a main focus on the potential of aptasensors for the multi-analyte detection(s). Results: Due to the specific folding capability of aptamers in the presence of analyte, aptasensors have substantially successfully been exploited for the detection of a wide range of small and large molecules (e.g., drugs and their metabolites, toxins, and associated biomarkers in various diseases) at very low concentrations in the biological fluids/samples even in presence of interfering species. Conclusion: Biological samples are generally considered as complexes in the real biological media. Hence, the development of aptasensors with capability to determine various targets simultaneously within a biological matrix seems to be our main challenge. To this end, integration of various key scientific dominions such as bioengineering and systems biology with biomedical researches are inevitable.