The prospects for using aptamers in diagnosing bacterial infections

Nucleic acid-based aptamers are widely accepted as promising tools for development of a plethora of diagnostic and therapeutic preparations, as well as means of environmental monitoring. The properties of aptamers permit them to be regarded as fully synthetic analogs of antibodies. Moreover, certain properties of aptamers render them superior to antibodies in terms of the development of new diagnostic and monitoring systems that combine high sensitivity and specificity with high reproducibility and inexpensive manufacture. In particular, aptamer-based technologies for detection of biomolecules and whole microorganisms can be employed in solving the problems of highly sensitive express diagnostics of bacterial pathogens. The present review summarizes the current state of the techniques developed for aptamer-based detection of bacteria and their components and discusses the potential of their practical application.