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Aptamers as New Agents Against Biotoxins

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Biological Toxins and Bioterrorism

Part of the book series: Toxinology ((TOXI))

Abstract

Biological toxins can be used by hostile states or terrorists as biological weapons and pose a great threat to public health and homeland security. Yet there are no effective countermeasures for most biological toxins. Aptamers are short single-stranded DNA or RNA oligonucleotides with high affinity and specificity to their targets. They are selected through the entire in vitro process and have many advantages over antibodies, leading them to have great potential for many therapeutic and diagnostic applications. In this chapter, the potential of aptamers as novel countermeasures and detection platform against biological toxins has been reviewed, along with the discussion of four biological toxins: ricin, botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs), staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB), and epsilon toxin of Clostridium perfringens, which are among the highest level of biothreat agents. This approach opens new avenues to combat biothreat and bioterrorism against public health and national security.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA, USA

    Shuowei Cai & Pavithra Janardhanan

Authors
  1. Shuowei Cai
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  2. Pavithra Janardhanan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shuowei Cai .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Venom and Toxin Research Programme, Department of Anatomy, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    P. Gopalakrishnakone

  2. Medical Toxicology Research Centre Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

    Mahdi Balali-Mood

  3. Data and Technology Innovation, Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville, QLD, Australia

    Lyndon Llewellyn

  4. Botulinum Research Center, Institute of Advanced Sciences, Dartmouth, MA, USA

    Bal Ram Singh

  5. Prime Bio, Inc., Dartmouth, MA, USA

    Bal Ram Singh

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Cai, S., Janardhanan, P. (2015). Aptamers as New Agents Against Biotoxins. In: Gopalakrishnakone, P., Balali-Mood, M., Llewellyn, L., Singh, B.R. (eds) Biological Toxins and Bioterrorism. Toxinology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5869-8_22

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