SELEX- Aptamer Technology to Combat Diseases of Animals : Recent Advancement and Future Application: A Review

Aptamers are ‘nucleic acid antibodies’ that bind to target molecules with high affinity and specificity. The process by which aptamers are selected is called Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential Enrichment (SELEX). A plethora of aptamers have been selected against various targets, such as proteins, cells, microorganisms, chemical compounds, etc. Technical progress in the aspects of high throughput sequencing (HTS) technologies, bioinformatics, microfluidics and nanodevices have widened the scope of aptamers to contribute significantly in human as well as veterinary medicine. We have searched the Pubmed database and Google Scholar with the search term ‘aptamer’, ‘SELEX’, ‘animal diseases’. The search results have been categorized into bacterial, viral and protozoal diseases of veterinary importance. Here we have systematically described the strategy used to design aptamers for each disease and also shed light on the future research scope in this area. This article presents a comprehensive and up-to-date review of SELEX-aptamer technology, its modifications, aptamers selected against various animal pathogens, their potential to be applied in the future for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.