Aptamers Enable Real-Time Biomarker Tracking Without Blood Draws

Continuous monitoring of biomarkers is critical for early disease detection, treatment evaluation, and personalized health management. Yet most clinical tests still rely on invasive, single-point blood sampling that provides only a snapshot of a patient’s condition. Existing wearable sensors often depend on antibodies or enzymes that lack long-term stability and reversible binding, limiting their usefulness for continuous monitoring. A new generation of aptamer-based wearable electrochemical sensors now enables real-time, continuous tracking of physiological signals directly in or on the body.

A review by researchers at Sun Yat-sen University (Guangzhou, China) and collaborating institutions has summarized advances in integrating DNA and RNA aptamers with electrochemical sensing platforms and wearable electronics for in vivo biomarker monitoring. Aptamers are short, single-stranded nucleic acids selected in vitro that offer high specificity, reversible target binding, and structural programmability. Unlike antibodies, they are chemically synthesized, highly stable, and exhibit tunable binding kinetics.

In the review published in Microsystems & Nanoengineering, researchers have described immobilization strategies such as gold–thiol bonding, covalent coupling, and biotin–streptavidin interactions to anchor aptamers onto electrode surfaces within flexible devices. The review details two main electrochemical signal transduction approaches: impedance-based sensing and redox-probe-based methods. In redox-based systems, aptamers are tagged with electroactive molecules such as methylene blue or ferrocene, allowing binding-induced structural changes to generate measurable electrical signals.

The review highlights various applications, including sweat sensors for cortisol and estradiol, flexible wound dressings that detect inflammatory markers and infection, and microneedle patches for drug and hormone monitoring in interstitial fluid. These platforms demonstrated high sensitivity, rapid response, and the ability to regenerate for repeated measurements. By enabling continuous, real-time biomarker tracking without repeated blood draws, aptamer-based wearable sensors address long-standing limitations of traditional diagnostics.

Their reversible binding and strong stability make them particularly suited for chronic disease management, therapeutic drug monitoring, and personalized medicine. Future systems integrating wireless communication, data processing, and multi-biomarker detection could further expand clinical applications. As materials science and flexible electronics advance, aptamer-enabled wearables are expected to become central tools in next-generation digital health and home-based diagnostics.

“Aptamer-based wearable electrochemical sensors represent a significant step toward truly continuous health monitoring,” the authors note. “Their reversible binding behavior and excellent stability address long-standing challenges associated with antibody-based sensors.”

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