Recent progress in signal amplification strategies for electrochemical aptasensors in pesticide detection: a review

The detrimental health impacts associated with pesticide exposure have become a global concern over the past decade, posing serious risks to both human well-being and environmental safety. Accordingly, electrochemical aptasensors have been considered as promising alternatives for pesticides monitoring, owing to their operational simplicity, shorter analysis time, and cost-effectiveness relative to conventional techniques such as high-performance chromatographic-based techniques. To enhance their analytical performance, particularly for trace-level detection, various signal amplification strategies have been leveraged. This review focuses primarily on recent developments in electrochemical signal enhancement techniques, with an emphasis on reporter-free architectures, utilizing metal, carbon, and c-DNA scaffolds for aptamer immobilization, and the auxiliary mediators-assisted systems, including redox molecules tagging and DNA recycling cascades. Additionally, aptamer selection criteria alongside the limitations and challenges are also mentioned. Ultimately, this review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of current progress and to outline potential directions for future studies and real-world applications.