In terms of cancer diagnoses and
cancer-related deaths worldwide,
colorectal cancer (CRC) is now the third most common malignancy. The
drawbacks of current screening methods are their exorbitant costs,
difficult procedures, and lengthy implementation timelines. The benefits
of fecal screening for CRC are ease of operation, noninvasiveness,
cost-effectiveness, and superior sensitivity. As a result of its enrichment
in the malignant tissues and feces of CRC patients, Fusobacterium
nucleatum (F. nucleatum) has emerged as
a crucial biomarker for the incipient detection, identification, and
prognostic prediction of CRC. Here, for the first time, the whole-bacterium
SELEX method was used to screen the highly specific and affinity aptamers
against F. nucleatum by 13 cycles of selection. The
Apt-S-5 linear correlation equation is y = 0.7363x
2.8315 (R
2 = 0.9864)
with a limit of detection (LOD) of 851 CFU/mL. The results of the
experiment using fecal samples revealed a substantial disparity between
the microorganisms in the CRC patients’ feces and those in
the feces of healthy individuals and were consistent with those of
qPCR. The aptamers may therefore offer a crucial approach to identifying F. nucleatum and hold tremendous promise for CRC diagnosis
and prognostic prediction.