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Aptamers in Oncotherapy

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RNA and DNA Diagnostics

Part of the book series: RNA Technologies ((RNATECHN))

Abstract

The ability of oligonucleotide aptamers to bind with high affinity and specificity, as well as their ease of production, has made them great candidates for their use as potential drugs, probes, or delivery agents. In this chapter, we will cover three novel biological applications incorporating the use of aptamers in therapeutics. First, we will discuss the most recent advancements in the use of these short oligonucleotides for targeted delivery of small molecules and biomolecules, such as drugs and microRNAs, in order to achieve tumor suppression. The second focus will be on the use of aptamers to image specific types of cells when coupled with nanoparticles, allowing in vivo detection of tumors, while bypassing the issue of aptamer degradation. Finally, we will discuss the use of aptamers that act upon infectious agents, either to eliminate those that are malignant or to protect the useful ones. Oncolytic viruses are such useful infectious agents and form an emerging cancer treatment featuring tumor-specific replication, leading to cell lysis. One of the biggest setbacks for this type of therapy is viral clearance by neutralizing antibodies. Aptamers can be turned into tools for protecting oncolytic viruses from the immune system and to assist higher specificity in targeting cancerous cells.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Polypeptides form another class of aptamers whose selection and propagation differs greatly from oligonucleotide aptamers. In this chapter, we will only consider the latter class of aptamers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

    Darija Muharemagic & Maxim V. Berezovski

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  1. Darija Muharemagic
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  2. Maxim V. Berezovski
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Correspondence to Maxim V. Berezovski .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Free University of Berlin Institute of Chemistry/Biochemistry, Thielallee 63, Berlin, Germany

    Volker A. Erdmann

  2. Nanobiomedical Center, Adam Mickiewicz University, Umultowska 85 Poznań, Poland

    Stefan Jurga

  3. Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Z. Noskowskiego 12/14 Poznań, Poland

    Jan Barciszewski

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Muharemagic, D., Berezovski, M.V. (2015). Aptamers in Oncotherapy. In: Erdmann, V., Jurga, S., Barciszewski, J. (eds) RNA and DNA Diagnostics. RNA Technologies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17305-4_5

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