Definition
An aptamer (from the Latin aptus, fit, and Greek meros, unit or part) is an in vitro selected oligonucleotide or peptide molecule that binds to a specific target molecule. Nucleic acid aptamers are target-binding DNA or RNA molecules obtained by in vitro evolution. A peptide aptamer is an individual member of a library of random peptide sequences that can be selected for its ability to interact with a target molecule.
History
By the end of the 1980s, the possibility to chemically synthesize nucleic acid pools of random sequence, as well as the availability of all the required enzymes for nucleic acid amplification, allowed the selection of target-binding RNA molecules from combinatorial nucleic acid libraries. The term “aptamer” was coined to denote the in vitro evolved, target-binding RNA (Ellington and Szostak 1990), while the amplification-selection process was termed “systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment” or SELEX (Tuerk and Gold 1990). The RNA...
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References and Further Reading
Colas P, Cohen B, Jessen T, Grishina I, McCoy J, Brent R (1996) Genetic selection of peptide aptamers that recognize and inhibit cyclin-dependent kinase 2. Nature 380:548–550
Ellington AD, Szostak JW (1990) In vitro selection of RNA molecules that bind specific ligands. Nature 346:818–822
Germer K, Leonard M, Zhang X (2013) RNA aptamers and their therapeutic and diagnostic applications. Int J Biochem Mol Biol 4:27–40
Gragoudas ES, Adamis AP, Cunningham ET Jr, Feinsod M, Guyer DR, VEGF Inhibition Study in Ocular Neovascularization Clinical Trial Group (2004) Pegaptanib for neovascular age-related macular degeneration. N Engl J Med 351:2805–2816
Joyce GF, Orgel LE (2006) Progress toward understanding the origin of the RNA world. In: Gesteland RF, Cech TR, Atkins JF (eds) The RNA world. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, New York
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Briones, C. (2015). Aptamer. In: Gargaud, M., et al. Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44185-5_403
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44185-5_403
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