Heavy metal pollution has become more and more serious with industrial development and resource exploitation. Because heavy metal ions are difficult to be biodegraded, they accumulate in the human body and cause serious threat to human health. However, the conventional methods to detect heavy metal ions are more strictly to the requirements by detection equipment, sample pretreatment, experimental environment, etc. Aptasensor has the advantages of strong specificity, high sensitivity and simple preparation to detect small molecules, which provides a new direction platform in the detection of heavy metal ions. This paper reviews the selection of aptamers as target for heavy metal ions since the 21th century and aptasensors application for detection of heavy metal ions that were reported in the past five years. Firstly, the selection methods for aptamers with high specificity and high affinity are introduced. Construction methods and research progress on sensor based aptamers as recognition element are also introduced systematically. Finally, the challenges and future opportunities of aptasensors in detecting heavy metal ions are discussed.

Aptamers are short non-coding, single-stranded oligonucleotides (RNA or DNA) developed through Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential enrichment (SELEX) in vitro. Similar to antibodies, aptamers can bind to specific targets with high affinity, and are considered promising therapeutic agents as they have several advantages over antibodies, including high specificity, stability, and non-immunogenicity. Furthermore, aptamers can be produced at a low cost and easily modified, and are, therefore, called “chemical antibodies”. In the past years, a variety of aptamers specifically bound to both breast cancer biomarkers and cells had been selected. Besides, taking advantage of nanomaterials, there were a number of aptamer-nanomaterial conjugates been developed and widely investigated for diagnostics and targeted therapy of breast cancer. In this short review, we first present a systematical review of various aptamer selection methods. Then, various aptamer-based diagnostic and therapeutic strategies of breast cancer were provided. Finally, the current problems, challenges, and future perspectives in the field were thoroughly discussed.

Foodborne diseases are a widespread and growing public health problem affecting both developed and developing countries, microbiologically contaminated food and water are the major causes of diarrhoeal diseases. Methods based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and microarrays are rapid and sensitive enough to detect very small quantities of microorganisms, however, the requirement for expensive equipments limits their application. In the present paper, we describe a method based on multiplex PCR and magnetic nanoparticles labelling for simultaneous detection of four major foodborne pathogens, including Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella enterica, Vibrio cholera and Campylobacter jejuni. The process utilizes an oligonucleotide array onto which 5' biotinylated single strand PCR products were hybridized and visualized with streptavidin-coated magnetic nanoparticles (SA-MNPs), the signal from which could be detected by the naked eye, microscope or CCD camera. By employing SA-MNPs as visible labels, the microarray unambiguously distinguished all 4 pathogens with detection sensitivity up to 316 CFU/mL. Due to its high sensitivity, specificity and simple detection procedure, the magnetic bead assay provides a powerful tool for the detection and identification of foodborne pathogens in a modestly equipped laboratory.

Recent developments in highly parallel genome-wide studies are transforming the association of human health and diseases. In these studies, multiple SNP loci from large amount of samples need to be investigated to obtain a result with a high degree of confidence. Herein, we describe a novel, cost-effective and automated method for high-throughput single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) genotyping based on universal tagged array and magnetic separation. By using two kinds of functionalized magnetic nanoparticles, the whole operation procedure including genome DNA extraction and SNP genotyping can be automatically performed by JANUS automated workstation (Perkin Elmer Inc.). Four different SNPs loci from 80 samples were scored using only one pair of universal dual-color probes, the phase of numerous SNPs can be automated assessed simultaneously. The results demonstrated that the expected scores and good discrimination were obtained between the two alleles from these four SNP loci. Due to adequately taking the advantages of high parallel read-out and intrinsically scalable properties of microarray, and the automated magnetic separation handling technology is highly adaptable fro multiplexing sample preparation and automated SNP analysis, also avoid the complex procedure including purification and concentration, the new strategy is high-throughput, simple, flexible, cost-effective, and will be very suitable for large-scale genotyping.

A highly sensitive unlabeled electrochemical aptasensor based on hydroxylated black phosphorus/poly-L-lysine (hBP/PLL) composite is introduced herein for the detection of malathion. Poly-L-lysine (PLL) with adhesion and coating properties adhere to the surface of the nanosheets by noncovalent interactions with underlying hydroxylated black phosphorus nanosheets (hBP) to produce the hBP/PLL composite. The as-synthesized hBP/PLL composite bonded to Au nanoparticles (Au NPs) firmly by assembling and using them as a substrate for the aptamer with high specificity as a probe to fabricate the sensor. Under optimal conditions, the linear range of the electrochemical aptasensor was 0.1 pM~1 μM, and the detection limit was 2.805 fM. The electrochemical aptasensor has great selectivity, a low detection limit, and anti-interference, which has potential application prospects in the field of rapid trace detection of pesticide residues.