Chapter 9
Aptamers for the Diagnosis of Malign
Tumors
Qiyan Lv, Huifang Cui, and Xiaojie Song
Abstract Malign tumor is one of the leading causes of human death worldwide,
and its incidence increased rapidly year by year. Thus, it is of great importance to
improve the strategy of early diagnosis for malign tumors. Aptamers are singlestranded oligonucleotide ligands with excellent chemical properties such as high
affinity, easy synthesis, controllable chemical modifications, low immunogenicity,
high stability, and fast tissue penetration. Therefore, aptamers are regarded as chemical antibodies and exhibit untapped potential for clinical applications. In this chapter,
we highlight the advantages and properties of aptamer-based methods for cancer
diagnosis, including cancer biomarker discovery, biosensing, and tumor imaging.
We focus on describing several analyses approaches for protein biomarkers, circulating tumor cells, and cancer-related exosomes. The recent imaging techniques for
tumor visual measurement are briefly expounded. Furthermore, the challenges and
perspectives for the clinical application of aptamer-based methods are discussed.
9.1 Introduction
Nowadays, malign tumors have been the second killer of human beings. In 2018, it
was reported about 18.1 million new cancer cases and 9.6 million deaths [1], placing
a heavy financial burden on patients and families. Nowadays, a huge amount of attention has been paid not only to improving cancer therapeutics but also to developing
novel schemes for early diagnosis and detection. Unfortunately, cancer always metastasizes so stealthily before being perceived and/or detectable, which reduces the cure
rate and increased mortality. Therefore, the early diagnosis of malignant tumors and
their metastasis is of great significance for cancer treatment [2]. Clinically, cancer is
a complex and dynamic disease that contains several progressions.
Within the cells of a malignant solid tumor, many related genes and proteins are
mutated and spinning out of control. These defective genes, proteins, exosomes,
Q. Lv · H. Cui (B) · X. Song
School of Life Sciences, Zhengzhou University, 100# Science Avenue, Zhengzhou 450001,
People’s Republic of China
e-mail: hfcui@zzu.edu.cn
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
Y. Dong (ed.), Aptamers for Medical Applications,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4838-7_9
239
Aptamers for the Diagnosis of Malign
Tumors
Qiyan Lv, Huifang Cui, and Xiaojie Song
Abstract Malign tumor is one of the leading causes of human death worldwide,
and its incidence increased rapidly year by year. Thus, it is of great importance to
improve the strategy of early diagnosis for malign tumors. Aptamers are singlestranded oligonucleotide ligands with excellent chemical properties such as high
affinity, easy synthesis, controllable chemical modifications, low immunogenicity,
high stability, and fast tissue penetration. Therefore, aptamers are regarded as chemical antibodies and exhibit untapped potential for clinical applications. In this chapter,
we highlight the advantages and properties of aptamer-based methods for cancer
diagnosis, including cancer biomarker discovery, biosensing, and tumor imaging.
We focus on describing several analyses approaches for protein biomarkers, circulating tumor cells, and cancer-related exosomes. The recent imaging techniques for
tumor visual measurement are briefly expounded. Furthermore, the challenges and
perspectives for the clinical application of aptamer-based methods are discussed.
9.1 Introduction
Nowadays, malign tumors have been the second killer of human beings. In 2018, it
was reported about 18.1 million new cancer cases and 9.6 million deaths [1], placing
a heavy financial burden on patients and families. Nowadays, a huge amount of attention has been paid not only to improving cancer therapeutics but also to developing
novel schemes for early diagnosis and detection. Unfortunately, cancer always metastasizes so stealthily before being perceived and/or detectable, which reduces the cure
rate and increased mortality. Therefore, the early diagnosis of malignant tumors and
their metastasis is of great significance for cancer treatment [2]. Clinically, cancer is
a complex and dynamic disease that contains several progressions.
Within the cells of a malignant solid tumor, many related genes and proteins are
mutated and spinning out of control. These defective genes, proteins, exosomes,
Q. Lv · H. Cui (B) · X. Song
School of Life Sciences, Zhengzhou University, 100# Science Avenue, Zhengzhou 450001,
People’s Republic of China
e-mail: hfcui@zzu.edu.cn
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
Y. Dong (ed.), Aptamers for Medical Applications,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4838-7_9
239