|
Z. Naturforsch. 2012,
67b, 976 – 986
doi:10.5560/ZNB.2012-0147
Aptasensors for Small Molecule Detection
1 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover, Institut für Technische Chemie, Callinstr. 5, 30167 Hannover, Germany
2 Ege University, Faculty of Science, Biochemistry Department, 35100 Bornova, Izmir, Turkey
Reprint requests to Dr. Johanna-Gabriela Walter. Fax: +49 511 762 3004. E-mail:
walter@iftc.uni-hannover.de
Received May 31, 2012 / published online October 8, 2012
Dedicated to Professor Heribert Offermanns on the occasion of his 75th birthday
Aptamers are single-stranded oligonucleotides composed of RNA or DNA that are able to bind their corresponding targets via molecular recognition. Thus, aptamers can be thought of as nucleic acid-based alternatives to antibodies and have attracted attention as receptors in biosensors. Aptamers seem to be ideal biological recognition elements, since they enable the design of intelligent sensors based on their specific properties. Especially the fact that most aptamers undergo conformational changes during the binding of the target and their oligonucleotide nature can be used to rationally design novel sensing strategies. This review focuses on aptasensors for the detection of small molecules. In the first part, aptamers, their generation and their properties are briefly described. In the second part, different design strategies for aptasensors are reviewed, and examples for the detection of small molecules are given.
Key words: Small Molecule, Aptamer, Biosensor, Aptasensor