Nucleic acid aptamers are artificial recognizing molecules that capable of specific binding to a wide variety targets. Aptamers commonly selected from huge library oligonucleotides and improved by introducing several mutations or modular constructions. Although hold great promise as therapeutic diagnostic tools, no simple approach improve their affinity has been suggested yet. Our recent analys...

This technical report describes the development of an aptamer for sensing azole antifungal drugs during therapeutic drug monitoring. Modified synthetic evolution of ligands through exponential enrichment (SELEX) was used to discover a DNA aptamer recognizing azole class antifungal drugs. This aptamer undergoes a secondary structural change upon binding to its target molecule, as shown through f...

Single-stranded DNA sequences that are highly specific for a target ligand are called aptamers. While the incorporation of aptamer sequences into stem-loop molecular beacons has become an essential tool in optical biosensors, the design principles that determine the magnitude of binding affinity and its relationship to placement of the aptamer sequence in the stem-loop architecture are not well...

AbstractBackground The receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE), a transmembrane belonging to the immunoglobulin superfamily, is overexpressed in pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMCs) patients with arterial hypertension (PAH) and implicated etiology of PAH. Recently, we reported that RAGE-aptamer, short single-stranded DNA directed against RAGE, inhibited an...

In this study, the previously reported integrated selective enrichment target (ISET)-MALDI-MS analysis was implemented with ssDNA aptamer to address the specific capturing of thrombin in complex samples. By applying a thrombin specific aptamer linked to ISET-MALDI-MS detection, a proof of concept of antibody fragment background reduction in the ISET-MALDI-MS readout is presented. Detection sens...

A detection system for theophylline that combined the recognition properties of an aptamer and the plasmonic response of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) is presented. The aptamer was used as a linker for AuNPs functionalized with complementary sequences to the aptamer (DNA-AuNPs), producing supramolecular complexes that disassemble when exposed to theophylline due to aptamer binding. The detection e...

In this study, we designed aptamer-gated nanocapsules for the specific targeting of cargo to bacteria with controlled release of antibiotics based on aptamer-receptor interactions. Aptamer-gates caused a specific decrease in minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of vancomycin for Staphylococcus aureus when mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) were used for bacteria-targeted delivery.

Insulin like growth factor II receptor (IGFIIR) is a transmembrane protein overexpressed in activated hepatic stellate cells (HSCs), which are the major target for the treatment of liver fibrosis. In this study, we aim to discover an IGFIIR-specific aptamer that can be potentially used as a targeting ligand for the treatment and diagnosis of liver fibrosis. Systematic evolution of ligands by ex...

This study identified specific and avid RNA aptamers consisting of 2'-hydroxyl- or 2'-fluoropyrimidines against hepatitis C virus (HCV) NS5B replicase, an enzyme that is essential for HCV replication. These aptamers acted as potent decoys to competitively impede replicase-catalyzed RNA synthesis activity. Cytoplasmic expression of the 2'-hydroxyl aptamer efficiently inhibited HCV replicon repli...

Objective (s): In light of misuse of antibiotics in animal husbandry and their side effects on human health, there is an argent need to develop simple and rapid methods for determining the quantification of antibiotics in biological systems. Materials and Methods: In this work a facile and ultrasensitive colorimetric aptasensor was reported for detection of oxytetracycline (OTC) in water and mi...