Recent Advances in Functionally Engineered Aptamers: Strategies and Applications

Aptamers are oligonucleotide sequences selected in vitro that possess advantages such as small size, non-toxicity, and ease of modification. Aptamer-based biosensing is advancing rapidly owing to the high affinity and specificity of aptamers for target molecules. Nevertheless, their relatively flexible structure and susceptibility to degradation in biological environments pose challenges for practical applications. To address these issues, researchers are developing functionally engineered aptamers through structural modifications such as chimera formation and splitting. These advancements have significantly accelerated aptamer research across multiple fields. This review highlights recent progress in functionally engineered aptamers, summarizing their construction strategies and applications in sensing. It also analyzes the characteristics of different types of engineered aptamers and their multi-field applications. Finally, current bottlenecks and future prospects are critically discussed. This review provides a systematic overview of engineered aptamers from a functional perspective, offering valuable insights for ongoing research in this dynamic field.