Electrochemical Aptasensors for Food and Environmental Safeguarding: A Review

Biosensors (Basel). 2018 Mar 23;8(2):28. doi: 10.3390/bios8020028.

Abstract

Food and environmental monitoring is one of the most important aspects of dealing with recent threats to human well-being and ecosystems. In this framework, electrochemical aptamer-based sensors are resilient due to their ability to resolve food and environmental contamination. An aptamer-based sensor is a compact analytical device combining an aptamer as the bio-sensing element integrated on the transducer surface. Aptamers display many advantages as biorecognition elements in sensor development when compared to affinity-based (antibodies) sensors. Aptasensors are small, chemically unchanging, and inexpensive. Moreover, they offer extraordinary elasticity and expediency in the design of their assemblies, which has led to innovative sensors that show tremendous sensitivity and selectivity. This review will emphasize recent food and environmental safeguarding using aptasensors; there are good prospects for their performance as a supplement to classical techniques.

Keywords: aptamers; aptasensors; electrochemical sensors; environmental safeguard; food safety.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Biosensing Techniques / methods*
  • Electrochemical Techniques / methods*
  • Environmental Monitoring / methods*
  • Food Safety / methods*
  • Humans