Aptamers are short non-coding, single-stranded oligonucleotides (RNA or DNA) developed through Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential enrichment (SELEX) in vitro. Similar to antibodies, aptamers can bind to specific targets with high affinity, and are considered promising therapeutic agents as they have several advantages over antibodies, including high specificity, stability, and non-immunogenicity. Furthermore, aptamers can be produced at a low cost and easily modified, and are, therefore, called “chemical antibodies”. In the past years, a variety of aptamers specifically bound to both breast cancer biomarkers and cells had been selected. Besides, taking advantage of nanomaterials, there were a number of aptamer-nanomaterial conjugates been developed and widely investigated for diagnostics and targeted therapy of breast cancer. In this short review, we first present a systematical review of various aptamer selection methods. Then, various aptamer-based diagnostic and therapeutic strategies of breast cancer were provided. Finally, the current problems, challenges, and future perspectives in the field were thoroughly discussed.
Increasing the content of reactive oxygen species (ROS) with the assistance of nanoformulations in cancer cells via the Fenton reaction is considered an effective method to treat cancer. However, the efficiency of the Fenton reaction is affected by the level of H 2 O 2 , the selection of iron ions in different nanoformulations, etc. Herein, we use Fe III -tannic acid (Fe III TA) nanocomposites as the carrier to deliver glucose oxidase (GOD) which can solve the problem of insufficient endogenous H 2 O 2 by catalytically converting the glucose. In comparison with traditional Fe 2+ /Fe 3+ , Fe III TA nanocomposites perform higher catalytic activity in converting H 2 O 2 to high toxic hydroxyl radicals (•OH) due to the TA-mediated reduction of Fe 3+ . So, the integration of GOD and TA in the construction of nanocomposites significantly enhances the efficiency of the Fenton reaction. In vitro experiments show that •OH produced by GOD-Fe III TA nanocomposites can not only achieve a good anticancer effect at a low concentration but also promote degradability of the nanocomposites. When it is only 1.08 μg•ml −1 , the cell apoptosis rate has reached 76.91%. In vivo experiments further demonstrate that GOD-Fe III TA nanocomposites can significantly inhibit tumor growth. So this work lays a good foundation for Fenton reaction-based cancer treatment.
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