Owing to a variety of advantages and unique adaptability of aptamers to point-of-care (POC) platforms, aptamer technology has created a stable niche in the field of in vitro diagnostics (IVD) by enhancing the speed and accuracy of diagnoses. Creative Biolabs has launched the aptamer technology for many years and now we are expanding our diagnostic development for many diseases in collaboration with our partners. Creative Biolabs is proud to offer aptamer development services and aptamer products for research use in a timely and cost-effective manner. We also provide turn-key or ala carte services customized to our client’s needs.
Antibody-based diagnostic assays are widely used to detect, characterize, and monitor disease. For some diseases, the development of specific antibody reagents and test assays has proven particularly challenging. In such cases, diagnostic aptamers are enabling the development of tests that are faster, more robust, more user-friendly, and more accessible than ever before. The aptamer market is continually growing and is expected to make great contributions to the diagnostic industry. In recent years, aptamers have been used in various POC diagnostic platforms such as lateral flow test strips, electrochemical sensors-based assays, fluorescence-based assays, electrochemiluminescence (ECL) assays, upconverting fluorophore-based assays, aptamer-linked immobilized sorbent assay (ALISA), Dot-blot (DB), and nanoparticle-based assays for the detection of various analytes ranging from small molecules to complex antigens to the whole cell.
Figure.1 Application of aptamers in the field of diagnosis. (Chandola, 2016)
Aptamer could be developed for flow cytometry applications. By utilizing aptamers, Creative Biolabs can develop magnetic bead-based cell isolation products that can efficiently isolate marker-positive cells. Enriched cell subpopulations can be easily assessed using flow cytometry as the aptamers used are dual-labeled. On the one hand, there exists a biotin label to capture the target cells by streptavidin-coated magnetic beads. On the other hand, the aptamer has a FITC label to monitor the captured cells using flow cytometry. This approach provides an efficient and rapid platform to isolate the specific biomarker-positive cells with high yield, purity, and cell viability. Some biomarkers are expressed at very low levels and their detection is difficult by other diagnostic approaches such as ELISA, WB, IP. Under this circumstance, using the biomarker-specific aptamer, cells having rare biomarkers on their surfaces could be pulled down from serum or other fluids and detected.
Fig.2 Aptamer-based diagnostic solution principle.
Please contact us to learn more about our aptamer-related services.
Reference
For Research Use Only.
