Highly sensitive and specific detection of small molecules using advanced aptasensors based on split aptamers: A review

The emerging split aptamers-based aptasensors show great advantages on highly sensitive and selective detection of small molecules. Split aptamers originate from one parent aptamer which is artificially dissected into two or more aptamer fragments, and in the presence of targets, these fragments reassemble specifically into a whole complex. This enables aptasensing detection of small molecules could be designed to be more diverse in form, and more importantly, to provide higher specificity and sensitivity. Herein, this review summarizes and discusses the state of art of split aptamers and their recent applications on the detection of small molecules, including all the existing reported split aptamers for small molecules and the diverse split aptamers-based aptasensors developed in the last five years. And future development prospects are discussed and predicted, with expectation to provide references to facilitate further researches for developing novel aptamers and aptasensors towards small molecules.