In addition, the existence of antibiotic-resistant microbes such as multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) and methicillin-and aminoglycoside-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MARSA) brings greater challenges to the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases ( Fauci et al., 2005 Tan Z. Existing pathogen detection methods are difficult to achieve a balance between timeliness, accuracy and cost to meet the requirements of large-scale population screening. Over the past decades, the sudden public health crises including Ebola hemorrhagic fevers, avian influenza, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) or Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), as well as COVID-19, have swept out the world and caused a significant impact on society inevitably ( Del Rio et al., 2014 Liu et al., 2017 Lycett et al., 2020 Wiersinga et al., 2020 Perra, 2021). Because of the characteristics of contagion and epidemic, infectious diseases not only endanger public health but also pose serious threats and huge losses to social stability and economic development. Infectious diseases which result from pathogenic microorganisms become one of the most important illnesses in the world ( Mosing et al., 2005 Giri et al., 2019). The challenges and the future development in this field of clinical application will also be discussed.
In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of the latest development of SELEX technology and focus on the applications of aptamer-based technologies in infectious diseases, such as targeted drug-delivery, treatments and biosensors for diagnosing. Aptamers, which were screened by systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX), can bind to targets with high affinity and specificity so that have exciting potential in both diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases.
Accurate and rapid diagnostics tools for early recognition of the pathogen, as well as individualized precision therapy are essential for controlling the spread of infectious diseases. Infectious diseases are considered as a pressing challenge to global public health.