Aptamer Engineering: Strategies for Discovering Functional Nucleic Acids for Next-Generation Diagnostics and Biosensing

Abstract

Aptamers are highly selective nucleic acid ligands that overcome many challenges of antibodies, including structural instability and high production costs. The implementation of aptamers into routine research and commercial applications has advanced steadily, though it has been tempered by the limitations of existing discovery methods, which remain relatively slow and low-throughput. SELEX, the gold-standard method for aptamer discovery, has played a pivotal role in the field. As the demand for faster and more tailored solutions grows, there is increasing recognition of the value of newer approaches that can expedite the discovery and optimization of aptamers for specific applications. This review discusses recent advances in the methods used for aptamer engineering, including both wet lab methods performed in vitro, and dry lab methods performed in silico. Applications of engineered aptamers described in recent literature and discuss new developments that could further lead to innovative new applications of aptamers for use both within and outside of the laboratory are discussed. Within the laboratory, these applications include (but are not limited to) target-binding assays and integration into analytical nanomaterials, and outside of the laboratory, diagnostics and biosensing, which will be discussed at length.