Nucleic Acid Aptamers: An Emerging Tool for Biotechnology and Biomedical Sensing

Ti-Hsuan Ku; Tiantian Zhang; Hua Luo; Tony M Yen; Ping-Wei Chen; Yuanyuan Han; Yu-Hwa Lo

doi:10.3390/s150716281

Nucleic Acid Aptamers: An Emerging Tool for Biotechnology and Biomedical Sensing

Sensors (Basel). 2015 Jul 6;15(7):16281-313. doi: 10.3390/s150716281.

Authors

Ti-Hsuan Ku¹, Tiantian Zhang², Hua Luo^{3

4

5}, Tony M Yen⁶, Ping-Wei Chen⁷, Yuanyuan Han⁸, Yu-Hwa Lo⁹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0407, USA. tiku@eng.ucsd.edu.
² Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0418, USA. tiz022@eng.ucsd.edu.
³ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0407, USA. luohuabox@gmail.com.
⁴ College of Basic Medicine and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China. luohuabox@gmail.com.
⁵ College of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China. luohuabox@gmail.com.
⁶ Department of Bioengineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0412, USA. tmyen@eng.ucsd.edu.
⁷ Chemical Engineering Program, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0448, USA. pingwei320@gmail.com.
⁸ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0407, USA. yuh054@ucsd.edu.
⁹ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0407, USA. ylo@ece.ucsd.edu.

Abstract

Detection of small molecules or proteins of living cells provides an exceptional opportunity to study genetic variations and functions, cellular behaviors, and various diseases including cancer and microbial infections. Our aim in this review is to give an overview of selected research activities related to nucleic acid-based aptamer techniques that have been reported in the past two decades. Limitations of aptamers and possible approaches to overcome these limitations are also discussed.

Keywords: DNA; RNA; SELEX; aptamer; biomarkers; liposome; polymer.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Aptamers, Nucleotide*
Biotechnology / methods*
DNA* / analysis
DNA* / chemistry
Humans
Liposomes
Mice
RNA* / analysis
RNA* / chemistry
SELEX Aptamer Technique*

Substances

Aptamers, Nucleotide
Liposomes
RNA
DNA