Oligonucleotide Aptamers: New Tools for Targeted Cancer Therapy
نویسندگان
چکیده
Aptamers are a class of small nucleic acid ligands that are composed of RNA or single-stranded DNA oligonucleotides and have high specificity and affinity for their targets. Similar to antibodies, aptamers interact with their targets by recognizing a specific three-dimensional structure and are thus termed "chemical antibodies." In contrast to protein antibodies, aptamers offer unique chemical and biological characteristics based on their oligonucleotide properties. Hence, they are more suitable for the development of novel clinical applications. Aptamer technology has been widely investigated in various biomedical fields for biomarker discovery, in vitro diagnosis, in vivo imaging, and targeted therapy. This review will discuss the potential applications of aptamer technology as a new tool for targeted cancer therapy with emphasis on the development of aptamers that are able to specifically target cell surface biomarkers. Additionally, we will describe several approaches for the use of aptamers in targeted therapeutics, including aptamer-drug conjugation, aptamer-nanoparticle conjugation, aptamer-mediated targeted gene therapy, aptamer-mediated immunotherapy, and aptamer-mediated biotherapy.
منابع مشابه
Aptamer-siRNA Chimeras: Discovery, Progress, and Future Prospects
Synthetic nucleic acid ligands (aptamers) have emerged as effective delivery tools for many therapeutic oligonucleotide-based drugs, including small interfering RNAs (siRNAs). In this review, we summarize recent progress in the aptamer selection technology that has made possible the identification of cell-specific, cell-internalizing aptamers for the cell-targeted delivery of therapeutic oligon...
متن کاملDevelopment of RNA aptamers as molecular probes for HER2+ breast cancer study using cell-SELEX
Objective(s): Development of molecules that specifically recognize cancer cells is one of the major areas in cancer research. Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is specifically expressed on the surface of breast cancer cells. HER2 is associated with an aggressive phenotype and poor prognosis. In this study we aimed to isolate RNA aptamers that specifically bind to HER2 overexpressi...
متن کاملRNA nanotechnology breakthrough for targeted release of RNA-based drugs using cell-based aptamers
Nucleic acids play different roles besides storing information and proteins coding. For example, single-stranded nucleic acids can fold into complicated structures with capability of molecular detection, catalyzing bioreactions and therapy. The development of RNA-based therapies has been rapidly progressed in the recent years. RNA aptamers are biomolecules with a size of 10 to 50 nm that can be...
متن کاملReducing Toxicity of Immune Therapy Using Aptamer-Targeted Drug Delivery.
Modulating the function of immune receptors with antibodies is ushering in a new era in cancer immunotherapy. With the notable exception of PD-1 blockade used as monotherapy, immune modulation can be associated with significant toxicities that are expected to escalate with the development of increasingly potent immune therapies. A general way to reduce toxicity is to target immune potentiating ...
متن کاملDoxorubicin Loaded DNA Aptamer Linked Myristilated Chitosan Nanogel for Targeted Drug Delivery to Prostate Cancer
Recently, specific attention has been paid to aptamers, short DNA or RNA, as a tool for cancer diagnosis and therapy. In the present study MCS nanogels were prepared by Myristate: chitosan at 1:9 ratio and were characterized by several techniques. A selected ssDNA aptamer(Apt) capable of detecting LNCaP cells was linked to Myristilated chitosan nanogels (Apt-MCS) by glutaraldehyde and loaded wi...
متن کامل