Applications Of Aptasensors In Health Care

Access to quality diagnostics is vital to maintain a healthy life as rapid and accurate diagnostic tests can guide the clinician to appropriately and timely manage diseases. However, a major limitation in the diagnostic sector is that it depends heavily on the supply of antibodies. These antibodies are used as molecular recognition elements in a variety of diagnostic assays but they usually displayed a high level of batch-to-batch variation thus pose a great threat in maintaining the quality of a diagnostic test. To overcome this limitation in recent years chemical rivals of antibody called aptamers have emerged. Aptamers are ssDNA or RNA molecule that can acquire a typical 2D or 3D structure to recognize its target with high affinity and specificity. In the last few years, aptamers have attained an impressive growth by showing their utility in detection of a variety of analytes ranging from small molecules to protein to the whole cell. It would not be surprising if aptamers will replace antibodies in diagnostic assays in coming years. This chapter is intended to highlight the importance and utility of aptasensors in health care.