Traditional antibody-based affinity sensing strategies employ multiple reagents and washing steps and are unsuitable for real-time detection of analyte binding. Aptamers, on the other hand, may be designed to monitor binding events directly, in real-time, without the need for secondary labels. The goal of the present study was to design an aptamer beacon for fluorescence resonance energy transf...

Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) is an important factor for vision loss in developed countries. A challenging aspect of the ocular infection by HSV-1 is that common treatments, such as acyclovir, fail to provide effective topical remedies. Furthermore, it is not very clear whether the viral glycoproteins, required for HSV-1 entry into the host, can be targeted for an effective therapy agains...

DNA aptamers are single-stranded oligonucleotides which can form various secondary and tertiary structures. They can recognize a broad range of targets ranging from small molecules, such as ions, vitamins, antibiotics, to high molecular weight structures, including enzymes and antibodies. DNA aptamers are extensively studied as a potential source of new pharmaceutical drugs due to their inexpen...

Hydrogels are one of the most appealing polymeric materials used for preparing sustained-release systems that have a great impact on pharmaceutical development and regenerative medicine. However, hydrogels generally have high permeability, which often leads to fast substance release. Extensively fast release will not only decrease the biological efficacy of the released substances, but also cau...

Mushroom foraging is very popular in some regions of the world. Sometimes toxic and edible mushrooms are mistaken by mushroom collectors, leading to serious human poisoning. The group of mushrooms highly dangerous for human health includes Amanita phalloides. This mushroom produces a toxic octapeptide called α-amanitin which is an inhibitor of nuclear RNA polymerase II. The inhibition of this p...

The binding/unbinding of the human thrombin and its 15-mer single stranded DNA aptamer, under the application of external stimulus in the form of electrostatic potential/electric field, is investigated by a combination of continuum analysis and atomistic molecular dynamics simulation. In agreement with the experiments that demonstrate the influence of electrostatic potential on the thrombin/apt...

The thrombin-binding aptamer (15-TBA) is a 15-mer DNA oligonucleotide with sequence d(GGTTGGTGTGGTTGG). 15-TBA folds into a quadruplex DNA (G-DNA) structure with two planar G-quartets connected by three single-stranded loops. The arrangement of the 15-TBA-thrombin complex is unclear, particularly with respect to the precise 15-TBA residues that interact with the thrombin structure. Our present ...

BACKGROUND As a new class of therapeutic and diagnostic reagents, more than fifteen years ago RNA and DNA aptamers were identified as binding molecules to numerous small compounds, proteins and rarely even to complete pathogen particles. Most aptamers were isolated from complex libraries of synthetic nucleic acids by a process termed SELEX based on several selection and amplification steps. Her...

Abstract Background and Aims Lupus nephritis (LN) occurs in up to 60% of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Despite current development immunosuppressant agents, LN still impairs the survival quality life SLE patients. Receptor for advanced glycation endproducts (RAGE) is a multi-ligand receptor that belongs immunoglobulin superfamily, which strongly associated innate immune syst...