Electrochemical aptasensors for microbial and viral pathogens

Aptamers are DNA and RNA oligonucleotides that can bind to a variety of nonnucleic acid targets with high affinity and specificity. Pathogen detection is a promising area in aptamer research. One of its major advantages is the ability of the aptamers to target and specifically differentiate microbial and viral strains without previous knowledge of the membrane-associated antigenic determinants or molecular biomarkers present in that particular microorganism. Electrochemical sensors emerged as a promising field in the area of aptamer research and pathogen detection. An electrochemical sensor is a device that combines a recognition element and an electrochemical transduction unit, where aptamers represent the latest addition to the large catalog of recognition elements. This chapter summarizes and evaluates recent developments of electrochemical aptamer-based sensors for microbial and viral pathogen detection, viability assessment of microorganisms, bacterial typing, identification of epitope-specific aptamers, affinity measurement between aptamers and their respective targets, and estimation of the degree of aptamer protection of oncolytic viruses for therapeutic purposes.