Aptamers for precision diagnosis and therapy for viral infections and parasitic neglected tropical diseases

Parasitic and viral pathogens impose a significant global health burden. Early, accurate, and affordable diagnostics remain scarce, as do therapeutics that provide a sterile cure. To address these burdens, aptamers have been proposed as potential alternatives. They offer enhanced stability through conformational modulation, cost-effectiveness, scalability, and long-term storage without loss of activity. Thus, they have been extensively explored in biomedicine for biomarker detection, imaging, diagnostics, and targeted therapy in the management of NTDs. Recent studies on aptamers against viral targets such as SARS-CoV-2, HIV-1, Hepatitis, Leishmania, Trypanosoma cruzi , and Plasmodium falciparum have shown improved affinities, detection limits, potent inhibitory effects, and enhanced therapeutic efficacy in preclinical models. Aptamer-based biosensors, fluorescence, magnetic separation, and paper-based LFAs require minimal reagents and equipment, enabling true field deployability. Nuclease susceptibility, rapid renal clearance, and challenges in scalable manufacturing are being addressed through chemical modifications and accelerated via Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential Enrichment (SELEX). This review evaluates current aptamer applications for viral and parasitic NTDs, outlines obstacles, and highlights pathways toward clinically viable, low-cost diagnostic and therapeutic platforms.