Riboswitches and aptamers: potential future targets to control drug-resistant bacteria

Abstract The indiscriminate use of pharmaceuticals in various applications leading to the development of drug-resistant bacteria has challenged researchers for a very long time to develop potential strategies against them. This chapter introduces riboswitches and aptamers as potential candidates for the detection and regulation of pathogens including drug-resistant bacteria in hospital wastewater. It starts by introducing a general perspective of riboswitches and aptamers and how they have been evolved with time. The first part highlights the role of riboswitches including their mechanism of action and model studies conducted in gene regulation in bacteria, later, the generation of aptamers using systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment and their application in biosensors (pathogen, drugs, and toxin detection). The use of aptamers and riboswitches in medical, environmental, and fundamental research along with their recent advancements and applications has been discussed in detail, with a particular emphasis on drug-resistant bacterial (pathogen) control. This chapter also describes how specific aptamers and riboswitches could serve as future targets to detect pathogens, toxins, and pharmaceuticals and to control drug-resistant bacteria in hospital wastewater.