title: Aptamer-based molecular imaging.
abstract: Molecular imaging has greatly advanced basic biology and translational medicine through visualization and quantification of single/multiple molecular events temporally and spatially in a cellular context and in living organisms. Aptamers, short single-stranded nucleic acids selected in vitro to bind a broad range of target molecules avidly and specifically, are ideal molecular recognition elements for probe development in molecular imaging. This review summarizes the current state of aptamer-based biosensor development (probe design and imaging modalities) and their application in imaging small molecules, nucleic acids and proteins mostly in a cellular context with some animal studies. The article is concluded with a brief discussion on the perspective of aptamer-based molecular imaging.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA. tjwang@iastate.edu
authors.forename: Tianjiao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Judhajeet
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ray
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D052157:Aptamers, Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D001483:Base Sequence; D015374:Biosensing Techniques; D006801:Humans; D057054:Molecular Imaging / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D052157:Aptamers, Nucleotide