The Application of Aptamer and Research Progress in Liver Disease

Mol Biotechnol. 2024 May;66(5):1000-1018. doi: 10.1007/s12033-023-01030-4. Epub 2024 Feb 2.

Abstract

Aptamers, as a kind of small-molecule nucleic acid, have attracted much attention since their discovery. Compared with biological reagents such as antibodies, aptamers have the advantages of small molecular weight, low immunogenicity, low cost, and easy modification. At present, aptamers are mainly used in disease biomarker discovery, disease diagnosis, treatment, and targeted drug delivery vectors. In the process of screening and optimizing aptamers, it is found that there are still many problems need to be solved such as the design of the library, optimization of screening conditions, the truncation of screened aptamer, and the stability and toxicity of the aptamer. In recent years, the incidence of liver-related diseases is increasing year by year and the treatment measures are relatively lacking, which has attracted the people's attention in the application of aptamers in liver diseases. This article mainly summarizes the research status of aptamers in disease diagnosis and treatment, especially focusing on the application of aptamers in liver diseases, showing the crucial significance of aptamers in the diagnosis and treatment of liver diseases, and the use of Discovery Studio software to find the binding target and sequence of aptamers, and explore their possible interaction sites.

Keywords: Aptamer; Biomarker; Drug delivery; Liver diseases; Patent.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Aptamers, Nucleotide*
  • Biomarkers
  • Humans
  • Liver Diseases* / diagnosis
  • Liver Diseases* / genetics
  • Liver Diseases* / therapy
  • SELEX Aptamer Technique* / methods

Substances

  • Aptamers, Nucleotide
  • Biomarkers