Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
2
Aptamer-Functionalized Nanomaterials
for Cell Re
cognition
Jing Zhou and Yong Wang
CONTENTS
2.1. Introduction........................................................................................................................... 31
2.2. Nucleic.Acid.Aptamer......................................................................................................... 32
2.2.1. Aptamer.Selection.................................................................................................... 32
2.2.2. Aptamer.Truncation................................................................................................. 34
2.3. Applications.of.Aptamer-Functionalized.Nanomaterials.............................................. 35
2.3.1. Aptamer-Based.Synthetic.Antibodies................................................................... 36
2.3.2. Aptamer-Functionalized.Nanoparticles............................................................... 37
2.3.3. Aptamer-Based.Multifunctional.Nucleic.Acid.Molecules................................. 39
2.4. Conclusions.and.Perspectives............................................................................................ 40
References....................................................................................................................................... 41
2.1 Introduction
Cell.recognition.is.an.essential.tool.in.biological.and.biomedical.ields..It.refers.to.the.nonco-
valent.interactions.(such.as.hydrogen.bonding.and.van.der.Waals.forces).between.ligands.
and.cell.receptors.(Frazier.and.Glaser.1979)..Various.natural.or.synthetic.molecules.have.
been.used.as.afinity.ligands.for.cell.recognition.(Weigent.et.al..1990,.Matsumoto.et.al..1999,.
Thielges.et.al..2008)..Particularly,.nucleic.acid.aptamers.have.become.an.emerging.class.of.
afinity.ligands.for.developing.or.functionalizing.nanomaterials.to.interact.with.cells.with.
high.selectivity.and.afinity..Nucleic.acid.aptamers.are.a.group.of.single-stranded.DNA.or.
RNA. molecules. that. are. selected. against. different. targets,. ranging. from. small. inorganic.
molecules.to.large.organic.complexes.like.cells.(Proske.et.al..2005)..Compared.with.natural.
afinity.ligands.like.antibodies,.nucleic.acid.aptamers.are.much.smaller.in.size..Moreover,.
their. chemical. synthesis. is. reproducible.. Nucleic. acid. aptamers. are. different. from. natu-
ral. nucleic. acids. as. their. nucleotides. are. usually. chemically. modiied. and. exhibit. great.
nuclease.resistance..Because.of.these.merits,.aptamers.have.been.used.in.a.variety.of.ields.
such.as.drug.delivery,.biosensing,.and.bioimaging.(Song.et.al..2008,.Soontornworajit.et.al..
2010)..Nanomaterials.have.a.large.ratio.of.surface.area.to.volume.and.distinct.properties.
compared. to. macroscopic. material. systems.. Organic. nanomaterials. with. multiple. sur-
face.functional.groups.such.as.dendrimers.can.be.used.as.nanocarriers.for.drug.delivery.
(Sanchez-Sancho. et. al.. 2002).. Inorganic. nanomaterials. such. as. quantum. dots. and. gold.
nanoparticles.can.be.used.for.biosensing.(Chan.and.Nie.1998,.Kim.et.al..2001)..Thus,.the.
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