Aptamers in research and drug development.
Aptamers are short single-stranded oligonucleotides that fold into well defined three-dimensional shapes allowing them to bind to and inhibit their targets with high affinity and specificity. Aptamers can be considered truly multifunctional tools, because they can be generated rapidly and applied for specific detection, inhibition, and characterization of proteins. Recent publications impressively confirm that aptamers can be used either as surrogate inhibitors for the identification of small molecule lead compounds or as biopharmaceuticals.
Mayer
Günter
G
NascaCell IP GmbH, Munich, Germany. gmayer@uni-bonn.de
Jenne
Andreas
A
D000818:Animals; D015195:Drug Design; D018390:Gene Targeting; D015316:Genetic Therapy; D006801:Humans; D007202:Indicators and Reagents; D009841:Oligonucleotides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000494:pharmacology*
D007202:Indicators and Reagents; D009841:Oligonucleotides