Rational Design of a Robust G-Quadruplex Aptamer as an Inhibitor to Alleviate Listeria monocytogenes Infection

Listeria monocytogenes (LM) is one of the most invasive foodborne pathogens that cause listeriosis, making it imperative to explore novel inhibiting strategies for alleviating its infection. The adhesion and invasion of LM within host cells are partly orchestrated by an invasin protein internalin A (InlA), which facilitates bacterial passage by interacting with the host cell E-cadherin (E-Cad). Hence, in this work, we proposed an aptamer blocking strategy by binding to the region on InlA that directly mediated E-Cad receptor engagement, thereby alleviating LM infection. An aptamer GA8 with a robust G-quadruplex (G4) structural feature was designed through truncation and base mutation from the original aptamer A8. The molecular docking and dynamics analysis showed that the InlA/aptamer GA8 binding interface was highly overlapping with the natural InlA/E-Cad binding interface, which confirmed that GA8 can tightly and stably bind InlA and block more distinct epitopes on InlA that involved the interaction with E-Cad. On the cellular level, it was confirmed that GA8 effectively blocked LM adhesion with an inhibition rate of 78%. Overall, the robust G4 aptamer-mediated design provides a new direction for the development of inhibitors against other wide-ranging and emerging pathogens.