Modular Aptamer Switches for the Continuous Optical Detection of Small-Molecule Analytes in Complex Media.

Aptamers are a promising class of affinity reagents because signal transduction mechanisms can be built into the reagent, so that they can directly produce a physically measurable output signal upon target binding. However, endowing the signal transduction functionality into an aptamer remains a trial-and-error process that can compromise its affinity or specificity and typically requires knowledge of the ligand binding domain or its structure. In this work, we describe a design architecture that can convert an existing aptamer into a "reversible aptamer-switch" whose kinetic and thermodynamic properties can be tuned without a priori knowledge of the ligand binding domain or its structure. Finally, by combining these aptamer-switches with evanescent-field based optical detection hardware that rejects sample autofluorescence, we demonstrate the first optical biosensor system that can continuously measure multiple biomarkers (dopamine and cortisol) in complex samples (artificial cerebrospinal fluid and undiluted plasma) with second-scale time resolution at physiologically relevant concentration ranges. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.