Perspective on the Future Role of Aptamers in Analytical Chemistry

It has been almost 30 years since the invention of Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential Enrichment (SELEX) methodology and the description of the first aptamers. In retrospect over the past 30 years, advances in aptamer development and application have demonstrated that aptamers are potentially useful reagents that can be employed in diverse areas within analytical chemistry, biotechnology, biomedicine, and molecular biology. While often touted as artificial antibodies with an ability to be selected for any target, aptamer development, unfortunately, lags behind development of analytical methodologies that employ aptamers, hindering deeper integration into the application of analytical tool development. This perspective covers recent advances in SELEX methodology for improving efficiency of the SELEX procedure and enhancing affinity and specificity of the selected aptamers, what we view as a critical barrier in the future role of aptamers in analytical chemistry. We discuss postselection modifications that can be used for enhancing performance of the selected aptamers in an analytical device by including understanding intermolecular interaction forces in the binding domain. While highlighting promising properties of aptamers that enable several analytical advances, we provide discussion on the challenges of penetration of aptamers in the analytical field.