title: Nucleic acid aptamers: an emerging frontier in cancer therapy.
abstract: The last two decades have witnessed the development and application of nucleic acid aptamers in a variety of fields, including target analysis, disease therapy, and molecular and cellular engineering. The efficient and widely applicable aptamer selection, reproducible chemical synthesis and modification, generally impressive target binding selectivity and affinity, relatively rapid tissue penetration, low immunogenicity, and rapid systemic clearance make aptamers ideal recognition elements for use as therapeutics or for in vivo delivery of therapeutics. In this feature article, we discuss the development and biomedical application of nucleic acid aptamers, with emphasis on cancer cell aptamer isolation, targeted cancer therapy, oncology biomarker identification and drug discovery.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Science and Biomedicine Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Bio-Sensing and Chemometrics, College of Biology, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, PR China.
authors.forename: Guizhi
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Mao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Donovan
authors.forename: Erqun
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Zilong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Weihong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Tan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D052157:Aptamers, Nucleotide / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism; D004337:Drug Carriers / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000737:chemistry; D052156:SELEX Aptamer Technique
chemical_list: D052157:Aptamers, Nucleotide; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D004337:Drug Carriers; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations