Abstract
Viral infections cause a host of fatal diseases and seriously affect every form of life from bacteria to humans. Although most viral infections can receive appropriate treatment thereby limiting damage to life and livelihood with modern medicine and early diagnosis, new types of viral infections are continuously emerging that need to be properly and timely treated. As time is the most important factor in the progress of many deadly viral diseases, early detection becomes of paramount importance for effective treatment. Aptamers are small oligonucleotide molecules made by the systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX). Aptamers are characterized by being able to specifically bind to a target, much like antibodies. However, unlike antibodies, aptamers are easily synthesized, modified, and are able to target a wider range of substances, including proteins and carbohydrates. With these advantages in mind, many studies on aptamer-based viral diagnosis and treatments are currently in progress. The use of aptamers for viral diagnosis requires a system that recognizes the binding of viral molecules to aptamers in samples of blood, serum, plasma, or in virus-infected cells. From a therapeutic perspective, aptamers target viral particles or host cell receptors to prevent the interaction between the virus and host cells or target intracellular viral proteins to interrupt the life cycle of the virus within infected cells. In this paper, we review recent attempts to use aptamers for the diagnosis and treatment of various viral infections.
Highlights
A virus is an organism at the boundary between living and non-living
Aspermair et al developed a reduced graphene oxide-based field-effect transistor for detecting the HPV E7 protein in saliva using RNA aptamers. They showed that the aptamer-functionalized rGO-FET could detect aptamer-HPV-16 E7 protein binding in real-time and in human samples with a detection limit of 100 pg/mL [11]
Shi et al developed aptamers against this Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) core protein and showed that while the developed aptamers had no effect on HCV RNA replication, they did inhibit the production of infectious viral particles in vitro cell culture system [44]
Summary
A virus is an organism at the boundary between living and non-living. Viruses are infectious pathogens and proliferate by infecting living organisms. Viruses have no means of self-reproduction, and must invade host cells in order to use the host’s molecular machinery to reproduce, after which the newly created viruses go on to infect other host cells Proliferation in this way can cause either acute disease or chronic disease depending on how long the virus leaves the host cell intact. Some treatments attempt to treat the virus by inducing the host’s own immune response, as viruses tend to mutate quickly, many avoid the effects of highly targeted drugs and the host’s immune system. In cases such as these, it becomes difficult to treat the viral infection without causing toxicity to host cells. Due to these clear advantages, many attempts have been made to develop aptamers as antiviral drugs and diagnostic substances
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