Oligonucleotide Based Therapeutics: Aptamers

The development of systematic evolution of ligand by exponential enrichment (SELEX) process, made possible the isolation of oligonucleotide sequence with the capacity to recognize virtually any class of target molecules with high affinity and specificity. These oligonucleotide sequences referred as ‘Aptamers’ and have wide diagnostic, therapeutic and analytical applications. Pre and post SELEX modifications confer biological stability to aptamers against nucleases. This enhances molecular diversity of oligonucleotide libraries and further enhances probability of finding aptamer with unique properties. The differentiating feature of an aptamer from other nucleic acid sequences (antisense nucleotide, si RNA etc) is its ability to fold into a tertiary structure to create a binding pocket to precisely and specifically interact with target.