(Coralville, IA, USA) (Figure 3A,B). a bright commercial future for aptamers in areas such as infectious disease and cancer diagnostics and therapeutics. As more researchers and CC-671 entrepreneurs become familiar with aptamers, it seems inevitable that aptamers will at least be considered for expanded roles in diagnostics and therapeutics. This review also examines new aptamer modifications and attempts to predict new aptamer applications that could revolutionize biomedical technology in the future and lead to marketed products. Antibodies with Supportive References. development which obviates host animals.[7]Ability to develop aptamers against native toxins without toxoid production.[7]Greater reproducibility of aptamers from batch-to-batch due to chemical synthesis[7]More rapid ability to develop neutralizing agents by robotic means against multi-drug resistant doomsday bug bacteria or emerging lethal viruses (e.g., Ebola, influenzas, MERS, SARS, as well as new therapeutic approaches and applications described in this article which could positively alter the track record of aptamers. Only a handful of companies have thus far developed and marketed aptamers as antibody-like binding reagents for research and development including the authors company (OTC Biotech, San Antonio, TX, USA), Aptagen (Jacobus, PA, USA), Base Pair Biotechnologies (Houston, TX, USA), NeoVentures Biotechnologies (London, ON, Canada), Aptamer Sciences (Pohang, Korea) and a few others. Even fewer companies have marketed aptamers as components of assay kits or CC-671 concentrating CC-671 devices, but among these are the NeoVentures Ochratoxin A and aflatoxin ELISA-like microplate assays [1] and affinity columns. The seminal aptamer company SomaLogic (Boulder, CO, USA) appears to be pushing its SOMAmers and SOMAScan aptamer array platform sensor into the proteomics and diagnostics markets via beta testing at various locations with a current capability to detect greater than 1100 different human proteins to sub-pg levels in body fluids [2,3]. The fact that aptamers first emerged on the biotechnology landscape in the early 1990s and have had meager commercial success should not dissuade researchers from continuing to pursue aptamer use and innovation. In the authors own experience, one of his companys C-Reactive Protein (C-RP) aptamers led Vance and Sandros [4] to develop a nanoparticle-based CC-671 Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) assay with low zeptomolar (10?21 M) detection of C-RP even when conducted in human serum. And in another of the authors own research efforts, he was able to develop a Brain Natriuretic Peptide (BNP) aptamer sandwich assay using electrochemiluminescence (ECL) in serum with sub-pg/mL sensitivity [5]. These and other recent successes in specific detection of analytes at ultrasensitive levels should encourage researchers to continue the pursuit of aptamer-based assays and therapeutic technologies. This review provides a vision and partial roadmap for where aptamers and their applications may progress. The author wrote a review of aptamer conjugates in 2013 [6] which described in some detail the state of the art for aptamer conjugates, so to avoid redundancy, mostly new areas or updates to previously discussed aptamer and aptamer conjugate technologies are addressed herein. Other authors have pointed out advantages of aptamers such as potentially greater affinity or specificity antibodies for some aptamers developed under stringent conditions. However, Table 1 lists unequivocal advantages of all aptamers antibodies which could lead to niche markets for aptamers. 2. New Diagnostic Aptamer Reagent Innovations and Marketing Strategies There is always room for new diagnostic modalities and assay formats, such as aptamer-nanoparticle conjugate surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) [25] or aptamer-coated magnetic beads to concentrate and purify analytes from body fluids prior to mass spectral analyses [26]. Coupling either SERS or liquid chromatography (LC)-mass spectral analyses of body fluids to aptamer technology could be huge and lucrative applications in various parts of the diagnostics industry. However, the dominant trend in recent aptamer-based diagnostics appears to relate to the composition of aptamers. This focus is represented by the subcategories below discussing longer multivalent aptamers and p21-Rac1 the addition of unnatural bases or alterations to the backbone and sugars to potentially enhance affinity, avidity, specificity and stability of aptamers. CC-671 Additionally, researchers appear to be focusing on the so called low lying fruit in diagnostics, namely food safety and environmental assays or home brewed laboratory-developed tests (LDTs) for clinical analytes [27]. LDTs are less expensive tests for clinical analytes used within the confines of a single laboratory or company. Although currently under increased scrutiny by the FDA, LDTs could provide a short-term.