Aptamer biosensors in early breast cancer detection

Breast cancer, a leading cause of cancer-related mortality among women, necessitates the development of sensitive and specific diagnostic tools for early detection and personalized treatment. An aptamer-based biosensor (aptasensor) is a biosensor that utilizes aptamers as its biorecognition element such as single-stranded DNA or RNA molecules that are specifically selected to bind to a target molecule with high affinity. Aptasensors have emerged as promising alternatives to traditional methods, offering advantages such as high affinity, specificity, and ease of synthesis. This review provides an overview of recent advancements in aptasensor technology for breast cancer diagnostics, focusing on the detection of key biomarkers. In this review, first after an overview to different types of aptasensors, we discuss the different type of aptamer immobilization methods on sensor surfaces using covalent, adsorption, and thiol-based self-assembly techniques. Furthermore, we present different aptasensor platforms, including electrochemical and optical approaches, highlighting their design principles, performance characteristics, and clinical applications.