Theranostic potential of aptamers in antimicrobial chemotherapy

Worldwide the infectious diseases are a major threat to the human population. However, the most important parameter is the prompt and sensitive diagnosis of pathogens. Therefore, tremendous efforts have been made for the development of rapid and portable detection techniques. The identification and treatment of infectious diseases at the nano and molecular levels is a hard task to achieve because of the scarcity of effective probes for characterization and recognition of biomarkers of these pathogens. Nonetheless, if it made possible simultaneous diagnosis and treatment at the specific spot, i.e., theranostics can be beneficial for treating the disease at a cellular level and can be helpful to understand the disease system. However, for theranostics a sensing system should be able to detect and measure biomarkers quickly. In this regard, aptamers (oligonucleotide polymers consist of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) or RNA) have displayed the ability to be used as probes for the recognition of various targets at molecular level. DNA and RNA have the capacity of doing much lot than just keeping genetic information and therefore are also known as functional nucleic acids. Aptamer-based biosensors would be an attractive format because they can be developed for various molecules using the same sensing format. Therefore, the aptasensors utilizing aptamers for various bacterial infections have stimulating theranostic potential as well. In this chapter, the potential of aptamers as theranostic agent for bacterial infections has been discussed. The advantages and limitations of aptamer-based theranostics for the development of personalized medicine are also discussed.