Discover therapeutic aptamers for VEGF165 and EGFR by high-fidelity pentamer condon set
Dehui Kong, Department of Chemistry, University of Georgia
Introduction
Aptamers are ssDNA or RNA oligonucleotides with very high affinity for their target. They bind to their target with high selectivity and specificity because of their well-defined tertiary structures. Researchers speculate that aptamers have the potential to replace antibodies as high-affinity reagents in medical diagnostics and therapy. SELEX (Systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment) is often used in evolve aptamers for various molecular targets[1]. The concept of using aptamers as therapeutic agents was first envisioned in the 1990s[2], with recent advances enabling their translation into the clinic[3]. In 2005, the first aptamer therapeutic was approved by the FDA to treat the wet form of age-related macular degeneration[4].
Aptamers have impressive advantages over antibodies[5]: (i) the in vitro selection process does not require the use of animals or cell culture which enables toxic or non-immunogenic targets aptamer selection;(ii) their generation through in vitro selection enables ready tuning of binding and specificity properties; (iii) their active structure can be reversibly formed by thermal denaturation and cooling; (iv) they exhibit excellent chemical stability and shelf-life; (v) their chemical synthesis is predictable and scalable. Fig.1 Antibody/Aptamer- protein
