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Nucleic Acid Aptamer‐Mediated Drug Delivery for Targeted Cancer Therapy
Author(s) -
Zhu Huijie,
Li Jin,
Zhang XiaoBing,
Ye Mao,
Tan Weihong
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
chemmedchem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.817
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1860-7187
pISSN - 1860-7179
DOI - 10.1002/cmdc.201402312
Subject(s) - aptamer , systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment , selex aptamer technique , oligonucleotide , computational biology , targeted drug delivery , nucleic acid , targeted therapy , drug delivery , cancer therapy , drug , biology , chemistry , dna , pharmacology , cancer , rna , microbiology and biotechnology , biochemistry , genetics , gene , organic chemistry
Aptamers are emerging as promising therapeutic agents and recognition elements. In particular, cell‐SELEX ( s ystematic e volution of l igands by ex ponential enrichment) allows in vitro selection of aptamers selective to whole cells without prior knowledge of the molecular signatures on the cell surface. The advantage of aptamers is their high affinitiy and binding specificity towards the target. This Minireview focuses on single‐stranded (ss) oligonucleotide (DNA or RNA)‐based aptamers as cancer therapeutics/theranostics. Specifically, aptamer–nanomaterial conjugates, aptamer–drug conjugates, targeted phototherapy and targeted biotherapy are covered in detail. In reviewing the literature, the potential of aptamers as delivery systems for therapeutic and imaging applications in cancer is clear, however, major challenges remain to be resolved, such as the poorly understood pharmacokinetics, toxicity and off‐target effects, before they can be fully exploited in a clinical setting.