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Aptamers as Novel Reagents for Biomarker Discovery Applications

Anoma Somasunderam and David G. Gorenstein

Detection of biomarkers indicating disease development is critically important for the early detection of disease, particularly in complex diseases such as cancer where early detection may determine the treatment protocol and outcome. Monoclonal antibodies have been routinely used in protein detection and several biomarker discovery platforms are built using antibodies as capture and detection reagents. However, several limitations with antibodies have led to the search for new reagents. Oligonucleotide-based reagents, called aptamers, are emerging as promising alternatives to antibodies. Aptamers show several advantages over antibodies, and several aptamer-based biomarker discovery applications are increasingly being reported. In this paper, we discuss the recent developments in aptamer technology and its application in biomarker discovery.