Aptamer Nanomedicine for Cancer Therapeutics: Barriers and Potential for Translation

Abstract

Aptamer nanomedicine, including therapeutic aptamers and aptamer nanocomplexes, is beginning to fulfill its potential in both clinical trials and preclinical studies. Especially in oncology, aptamer nanomedicine may perform better than conventional or antibody-based chemotherapeutics due to specificity compared to the former and stability compared to the latter. Many proof-of-concept studies on applying aptamers to drug delivery, gene therapy, and cancer imaging have shown promising efficacy and impressive safety in vivo toward translation. Yet, there remains ample room for improvement and critical barriers to be addressed. In this review, we will first introduce the recent progress in clinical trials of aptamer nanomedicine, followed by a discussion of the barriers at the design and in vivo application stages. We will then highlight recent advances and engineering strategies proposed to tackle these barriers. Aptamer cancer nanomedicine has the potential to address one of the most important healthcare issues of the society.

The state-of-play and future of platinum drugs

“…In many ways aptamers can be superior to antibodies as they are just as selective and have identical binding affinities but are also non-immunogenic, more easily synthesized and can be generated against practically any target. In cancer, aptamers can be used in a variety of ways, including cancer diagnostics and testing, as a therapeutic agent for cancer and as active targeting agents for drug delivery (Lao et al 2015, Ma et al 2015.…”

Post-ExSELEX stabilization of an unnatural-base DNA aptamer targeting VEGF165toward pharmaceutical applications

“…DNA and RNA aptamers that specifically bind to target molecules are expected to become an alternative to protein-based antibodies for pharmaceutical applications (1–9). They are initially generated by an evolutionary engineering method in a test tube (Systematic Evolution of Ligands by EXponential enrichment (SELEX)) (10,11), and then chemically synthesized for subsequent large-scale preparation.…”

Modelling and Development of Electrical Aptasensors: A Short Review

“…Advantages, limitations and prospects for successful cancer therapeutics by using aptamers instead of antibodies are shown and discussed in many recent reviews; see, for example, [16][17][18]. In a nutshell, the key points in using aptamers are: (i) they are synthetically produced, therefore chemical modifications can be easily and accurately introduced to fulfil different diagnostic and therapeutic purposes; (ii) they show good thermo-stability and long-term stability; (iii) with respect to the analogue monoclonal antibodies, they show reduced side effects and low production costs; (iv) they are relatively small with respect to monoclonal antibodies; therefore, they are expected to show greater penetration into tumor tissues [8].…”

“…Currently, the use of aptamers in medical applications is a reality: an aptamer specifically recognizing human vascular endothelial growth factor has been approved for the treatment of Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) in the U.S. and the EU, and others are under clinical trials for applications in coagulation, oncology and inflammation [17].…”