Cancers, Vol. 10, Pages 9: Current Advances in Aptamers for Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy

Cancers, Vol. 10, Pages 9: Current Advances in Aptamers for Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy

Cancers doi: 10.3390/cancers10010009

Authors: Shin-ichiro Hori Alberto Herrera John Rossi Jiehua Zhou

Nucleic acid aptamers are single-stranded oligonucleotides that interact with target molecules with high affinity and specificity in unique three-dimensional structures. Aptamers are generally isolated by a simple selection process called systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX) and then can be chemically synthesized and modified. Because of their high affinity and specificity, aptamers are promising agents for biomarker discovery, as well as cancer diagnosis and therapy. In this review, we present recent progress and challenges in aptamer and SELEX technology and highlight some representative applications of aptamers in cancer therapy.

http://ift.tt/2E02ZRB