DNA aptamer as molecular recognition probe to selectively differentiate tumor cells

Abstract

Cell surface proteins play important roles in cancer pathogenesis and most of these receptors can serve as primary targets for the diagnosis and therapy of cancer. The identification of specific biomolecules as molecular signatures of tumor cells is critical and can be strategically used for clinical applications as well as for research. We recently have developed a novel cell‐based aptamer selection method (Cell‐SELEX) to specifically select a group of aptamers that can distinguish tumor cell lines derived from different cancer types. Molecular aptamers are DNA/RNA sequences that can recognize proteins, peptides and other small molecules with high affinity and specificity. Aptamers are selected from a large pool of oligonucleotide sequences by Systematic Evolution of Ligand by Exponential enrichment (SELEX). In this study, we report the development of group of DNA aptamers that identify different myeloid leukemia cell lines and colorectal cancer cell lines by binding to membrane surface proteins with dissociation constants in the nanomolar range. This approach has the potential to identify disease associated biomarkers, which may enable development of improved diagnostics as well as identification of new molecular signatures for drug development. It may also further the understanding of the molecular aspects of disease progression in various cancers.