Abstract
Since cells are the basic structural and functional units of organisms, the detection or quantitation of cells is one of the most common basic problems in life science research. The established cell detection techniques mainly include fluorescent dye labeling, colorimetric assay, and lateral flow assay, all of which employ antibodies as cell recognition elements. However, the widespread application of the established methods generally dependent on antibodies is limited, because the preparation of antibodies is complicated and time-consuming, and unrecoverable denaturation is prone to occur with antibodies. By contrast, aptamers that are generally selected through the systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment can avoid the disadvantages of antibodies due to their controllable synthesis, thermostability, and long shelf life, etc. Accordingly, aptamers may serve as novel molecular recognition elements like antibodies in combination with various techniques for cell detection. This paper reviews the developed aptamer-based cell detection methods, mainly including aptamer-fluorescent labeling, aptamer-isothermal amplification assay, electrochemical aptamer sensor, aptamer-based lateral flow analysis, and aptamer-colorimetric assay. The principles, advantages, progress of application in cell detection and future development trend of these methods were specially discussed. Overall, different assays are suitable for different detection purposes, and the development of more accurate, economical, efficient, and rapid aptamer-based cell detection methods is always on the road in the future. This review is expected to provide a reference for achieving efficient and accurate detection of cells as well as improving the usefulness of aptamers in the field of analytical applications.
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Data Availability
All data are available from the authors upon reasonable request.
Abbreviations
- RNA:
-
Ribonucleic acid
- DNA:
-
Deoxyribonucleic acid
- SELEX:
-
Systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment
- WC-SELEX:
-
Whole-cell SELEX
- PCR:
-
Polymerase chain reaction
- LIGS:
-
Ligand-guided selection
- mAb:
-
Monoclonal antibody
- mIgM:
-
Membrane-bound immunoglobulin
- ssDNA:
-
Single-stranded DNA
- HPLC:
-
High-performance liquid chromatography
- PH:
-
Potential of hydrogen
- LAMP:
-
Loop-mediated isothermal amplification
- RCA:
-
Rolling circle amplification
- HCR:
-
Hybridization chain reaction
- L. monocytogenes :
-
Listeria monocytogenes
- PLP:
-
Padlock probe
- DNTPs:
-
Deoxynucleoside triphosphates
- cDNA:
-
Complementary deoxyribonucleic acid
- V. parahaemolyticus :
-
Vibrio Parahaemolyticus
- IC:
-
Initiating chain
- HP:
-
Hairpin probes
- Aptasensors:
-
Aptamer sensors
- E. coli :
-
Escherichia coli
- CFU:
-
Colony forming units
- LFA:
-
Lateral flow assay
- GC:
-
Gas chromatography
- GC-MS:
-
Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry
- LC-MS:
-
Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry
- V. fischeri :
-
Vibrio fischeri
- ATP:
-
Adenosine triphosphate
- AuNPs:
-
Amphiphilic gold nanoparticles
- GNPs:
-
Gold nanoparticles
- SPR:
-
Surface plasmon resonanceATO
- UV:
-
Ultraviolet
- S. typhimurium :
-
Salmonella typhimurium
- S. aureus :
-
Staphylococcus aureus
- dsDNA:
-
Double-stranded DNA
- SGI:
-
SYBR Green I
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Funding
This work was supported by Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation, China (ZR2020MD081); the National Scientific Foundation of China (No. 31600309, 41476086); HIT Scientific Research Innovation Fund (No. 2022KYCXJJ07); and HIT Environment and Ecology Innovation Special Funds (No. HSCJ201622).
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Conceived and designed the paper: Fuguo Liu, Chunyun Zhang and Guofu Chen; Analysis and arrangement of documents: Yu Duan, Jinju Ma, Yuanyuan Wang and Wenrong Chen; Wrote the paper: Wenrong Chen.
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Chen, W., Liu, F., Zhang, C. et al. A review of advances in aptamer-based cell detection technology. Mol Biol Rep 50, 5425–5438 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-023-08410-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-023-08410-8