Review Paper:
Current and Future
Perspectives on the Development and Design of Aptamers
Tandasi Vandana and Srivastava Sudha
Res. J. Biotech.; Vol. 21(2); 310-327;
doi: https://doi.org/10.25303/212rjbt3100327; (2026)
Abstract
Aptamers are oligonucleotides that display unique characteristics of identifying
and binding to certain biological targets with utmost precision. The process of
generating aptamers by conventional techniques has been time-consuming, expensive
and labour-intensive. To counter these limitations, the emergence of advanced computational
and Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have opened up opportunities for the
remarkable growth and advancement of aptamer applications in drug delivery, diagnostics
and therapeutics. AI has revolutionised the biomedical field paving a path for development
of specific and high affinity aptamers to enhance efficiency, to reduce time, costs
and manpower.
In this review, we explore several ongoing studies, various aptamer database developed
and patents filed that deepen our understanding of the role of aptamers in biomedical
science and several upcoming developments utilizing AI tools and computational algorithms.
We also present a comprehensive overview of computational AI tools for aptamer selection,
aptamer design, aptamer modelling, aptamer protein binding prediction and the design
of aptasensors.
