Applications of aptamers in cancer cell biology.
Identifying cells associated with specific disease states is critically important for the early detection and diagnosis of cancer. To facilitate this task, molecular probes, which bind biomarkers that are either specifically or differentially expressed in diseased cells relative to healthy cells, provide a simple and effective method. This review focuses on the use of DNA aptamers as molecular probes for cancer cells. These aptamers are created by means of the cell-based Systematic Evolution of Ligands by EXponential enrichment (SELEX) process, which uses whole disease cells as targets. We describe at length the steps of the cell-SELEX process and discuss several applications for the aptamers, including profiling leukemia patient samples and discovering cell-surface cancer biomarkers. We conclude with a discussion of an aptamer-conjugated nanoparticle enrichment and detection scheme.
Center for Research at the Bio/Nano Interface, Department of Chemistry, Shands Cancer Center, University of Florida Genetics Institute, and McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-7200, USA.
Joseph A
JA
Phillips
Dalia
D
Lopez-Colon
Zhi
Z
Zhu
Ye
Y
Xu
Weihong
W
Tan
D052157:Aptamers, Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics*; D001695:Biology; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D052156:SELEX Aptamer Technique
D052157:Aptamers, Nucleotide; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor