Abstract
Both aptamers and siRNA technologies have now reached maturity, and both have been validated with a product in the market. However, although pegaptanib reached the market some time ago, there has been a slow process for new aptamers to follow. Today, some 40 aptamers are in the market, but many in combination with siRNAs, in the form of specific delivery agents. This combination offers the potential to explore the high affinity and specificity of aptamers, the silencing power of siRNA, and, at times, the cytotoxicity of chemotherapy molecules in powerful combinations that promise to delivery new and potent therapies. In this review, we report new developments in the field, following up from our previous work, more specifically on the use of aptamers as delivery agents of siRNA in nanoparticle formulations, alone or in combination with chemotherapy, for the treatment of cancer.
Highlights
Small interfering RNA siRNA suppress expression of genes by targeting the mRNA expression
This study shows an efficiently delivered targeting of anti-cancer therapeutic siRNAs, as well as fluorescent Quantum Dots (QD) to tumor tissues, enabling the use of theranostic delivery systems in the treatment and fluorescence imaging of cancers [37]
There are 42 studies in clinical trials using the term “aptamer”, and 64 completed or ongoing studies using the term “siRNA” for treating medical conditions, including: cancer, Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and diseases of the immune system, which indicates that these two therapeutic agents are still on the frontier of knowledge and are tendency in the global market
Summary
Small interfering RNA siRNA suppress expression of genes by targeting the mRNA expression. This therapeutic approach in association with Chloroquine acted synergistically to reverse erlotinib resistance in EGFR mutation-positive of non-small-cell-lung cancer (NSCLC) [25] Another strategy is use of siRNA-aptamer chimera to compose the nanoparticle, and the siRNA-aptamer chimera has emerged as a promising approach for efficient delivery of siRNA to specific cell types, owing to its low immunogenicity, ease of chemical synthesis and modification, and the outstanding targeting specificity of the aptamer [26]. This study shows an efficiently delivered targeting of anti-cancer therapeutic siRNAs, as well as fluorescent QDs to tumor tissues, enabling the use of theranostic delivery systems in the treatment and fluorescence imaging of cancers [37]. In vitro and in vivo anti-tumor activity in prostate cancer cells and xenografts in mice
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