Infectious diseases are a serious global problem, which not only take an enormous human toll but also incur tremendous economic losses. In combating infectious diseases, rapid and accurate diagnostic tests are required for pathogen identification at the point of care (POC). In this review, investigations of diagnostic strategies for infectious diseases that are based on aptamers, especially nucleic acid aptamers, oligonucleotides that have high affinities and specificities toward their targets, are described. Owing to their unique features including low cost of production, easy chemical modification, high chemical stability, reproducibility, and low levels of immunogenicity and toxicity, aptamers have been widely utilized as bio-recognition elements (bio-receptors) for the development of infection diagnostic systems. We discuss nucleic acid aptamer-based methods that have been developed for diagnosis of infections using a format that organizes discussion according to the target pathogenic analytes including toxins or proteins, whole cells and nucleic acids. Also included is, a summary of recent advances made in the sensitive detection of pathogenic bacteria utilizing the isothermal nucleic acid amplification method. Lastly, a nucleic acid aptamer-based POC system is described and future directions of studies in this area are discussed.

传染病是一个严重的全球性问题，不仅造成巨大的人员伤亡，而且造成巨大的经济损失。在对抗传染病时，需要快速、准确的诊断测试来在护理点 (POC) 识别病原体。在这篇综述中，描述了基于核酸适体、特别是核酸适体、对其靶点具有高亲和力和特异性的寡核苷酸的传染病诊断策略的研究。适配体具有生产成本低、化学修饰容易、化学稳定性高、重现性好、免疫原性和毒性低等特点，被广泛用作生物识别元件（生物受体），用于感染诊断的发展系统。我们讨论基于核酸适体的方法，这些方法已开发用于诊断感染，使用的格式根据目标致病分析物（包括毒素或蛋白质、全细胞和核酸）组织讨论。还总结了利用等温核酸扩增方法灵敏检测病原菌的最新进展。最后，描述了基于核酸适体的POC系统，并讨论了该领域的未来研究方向。