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Improving aptamer performance: key factors and strategies

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Abstract

Aptamers are functional single-stranded oligonucleotide fragments isolated from randomized libraries by Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential Enrichment (SELEX), exhibiting excellent affinity and specificity toward targets. Compared with traditional antibody reagents, aptamers display many desirable properties, such as low variation and high flexibility, and they are suitable for artificial and large-scale synthesis. These advantages make aptamers have a broad application potential ranging from biosensors, bioimaging to therapeutics and other areas of application. However, the overall performance of aptamer pre-selected by SELEX screening is far from being satisfactory. To improve aptamer performance and applicability, various post-SELEX optimization methods have been developed in the last decade. In this review, we first discuss the key factors that influence the performance or properties of aptamers, and then we summarize the key strategies of post-SELEX optimization which have been successfully used to improve aptamer performance, such as truncation, extension, mutagenesis and modification, splitting, and multivalent integration. This review shall provide a comprehensive summary and discussion of post-SELEX optimization methods developed in recent years. Moreover, by discussing the mechanism of each approach, we highlight the importance of choosing the proper method to perform post-SELEX optimization.

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Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the Major Science & Technology Programs of Yunnan Province (No. 202102AE090015) and the National Key Research and Development Program (2017YFD0800704).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Agriculture and Biology, Key Laboratory of Urban Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture, Bor S. Luh Food Safety Research Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, People’s Republic of China

    Hong Yu, Jiangxiong Zhu, Guoqing Shen, Yun Deng, Xueqing Geng & Lumei Wang

  2. Shanghai Jiao Tong University YunNan (Dali) Research Institute, Dali, 671000, Yunnan, China

    Hong Yu, Jiangxiong Zhu, Guoqing Shen, Yun Deng, Xueqing Geng & Lumei Wang

  3. Shanghai Yangtze River Delta Eco-Environmental Change and Management Observation and Research Station, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, 800 Dongchuan Rd, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Hong Yu, Jiangxiong Zhu, Guoqing Shen, Yun Deng, Xueqing Geng & Lumei Wang

  4. Shanghai Urban Forest Ecosystem Research Station, National Forestry and Grassland Administration, 800 Dongchuan Rd, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Hong Yu, Jiangxiong Zhu, Guoqing Shen, Yun Deng, Xueqing Geng & Lumei Wang

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  1. Hong Yu
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  2. Jiangxiong Zhu
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  5. Xueqing Geng
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Correspondence to Lumei Wang.

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Yu, H., Zhu, J., Shen, G. et al. Improving aptamer performance: key factors and strategies. Microchim Acta 190, 255 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-023-05836-6

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