Aptamers for the detection of drugs, biomarkers, and small molecules for ocular applications

Abstract

Various embodiments are described herein for utilizing a DNA or RNA aptamer to detect ocular drugs, biomarkers, and small molecules. The DNA or RNA aptamer consists of a binding sequence to selectively and strongly bind to the compound of interest and may be tethered to an easily detectable tag. The tag can be fluorescent, radioactive, or a chromophore. The detection of the compound of interest can then be achieved with simple standard detection methods such as UV-Vis or fluorescence spectrophotometry, or more complex methods such as mass spectrophotometry or electrochemical detection, preferably fluorescence detection or radioactivity detection with high sensitivity.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.