Applications of Aptamers in Drug Delivery System

Abstract

Aptamers, a kind of short single-stranded oligonucleic acids (DNA or RNA) or peptide molecules that can fold into secondary or tertiary structures, are well recognized as a potential tool for binding target molecules due to its high specificity and affinity. As tumor targeted ligands, aptamers have certain superiorities compared with antibodies, such as low immunogenicity, high binding specificity and so on. By the means of systematic evolution of ligands with exponential enrichment (SELEX) approach, selected aptamers showed high affinity to specific targets like proteins, peptides, and even the entire cells. In this review, we will give a brief overview of recent relevant research in the field of aptamers and their applications in cancer diagnostics and in drug delivery system.