title: Molecular aptamers for drug delivery.
abstract: The active targeting of drugs in a cell-, tissue- or disease-specific manner represents a potentially powerful technology with widespread applications in medicine, including the treatment of cancers. Aptamers have properties such as high affinity and specificity for targets, easy chemical synthesis and modification, and rapid tissue penetration. They have become attractive molecules in diagnostics and therapeutics rivaling and, in some cases, surpassing other molecular probes, such as antibodies. In this review, we highlight the recent progress in aptamer-mediated delivery for therapeutics and disease-targeting based on aptamer integration with a variety of nanomaterials, such as gold nanorods, DNA micelles, DNA hydrogels and carbon nanotubes.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China. tan@chem.ufl.edu
authors.forename: Weihong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Xiaobing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Haizhen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Chaoyong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Ronghua
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D052157:Aptamers, Nucleotide / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D004337:Drug Carriers / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D052157:Aptamers, Nucleotide; D004337:Drug Carriers