Aptamer-based biosensors and nanosensors for the detection of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF): A review

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a key regulator of vascular formation and a predominant protein biomarker in cancer angiogenesis. Owing to its crucial roles in the cancer metastasis, VEGF detection and quantification is of great importance in clinical diagnostics. Today, there exist a wide variety of detection strategies for identifying many types of disease biomarkers, especially for VEGF. As artificial single-stranded DNA or RNA oligonucleotides with catalytic and receptor properties, aptamers have drawn lots of attention to be applied in biosensing platforms due to their target-induced conformational changes as well as high stability and target versatility. So far, various sensitivity-enhancement techniques in combination with a broad range of smart nanomaterials have integrated into the design of novel aptasensors to improve detection limit and sensitivity of analyte detection. This review article provides a brief classification and description of the research progresses of aptamer-based biosensors and nanobiosensors for the detection and quantitative determination of VEGF based on optical and electrochemical platforms.