Among the various advantages of aptamers over antibodies, remarkable is their ability to tolerate a large number of chemical modifications within their backbone or at the termini without losing significant activity. Indeed, aptamers can be easily equipped with a wide variety of reporter groups or coupled to different carriers, nanoparticles, or other biomolecules, thus producing valuable molecular recognition tools effective for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. This review reports an updated overview on fluorescent DNA aptamers, designed to recognize significant cancer biomarkers both in soluble or membrane-bound form. In many examples, the aptamer secondary structure switches induced by target recognition are suitably translated in a detectable fluorescent signal using either fluorescently-labelled or label-free aptamers. The fluorescence emission changes, producing an enhancement ("signal-on") or a quenching ("signal-off") effect, directly reflect the extent of the binding, thereby allowing for quantitative determination of the target in bioanalytical assays. Furthermore, several aptamers conjugated to fluorescent probes proved to be effective for applications in tumour diagnosis and intraoperative surgery, producing tumour-type specific, non-invasive in vivo imaging tools for cancer pre- and post-treatment assessment.

Fluorescence Sensing Using DNA Aptamers in Cancer Research and Clinical Diagnostics / Musumeci, Domenica; Platella, Chiara; Riccardi, Claudia; Moccia, Federica; Montesarchio, Daniela. - In: CANCERS. - ISSN 2072-6694. - 9:174(2017), pp. 1-43. [10.3390/cancers9120174]

Fluorescence Sensing Using DNA Aptamers in Cancer Research and Clinical Diagnostics

Domenica Musumeci
Writing – Original Draft Preparation
;
Chiara Platella
Investigation
;
Claudia Riccardi
Investigation
;
Moccia, Federica
Data Curation
;
Daniela Montesarchio
Writing – Review & Editing
2017

Abstract

Among the various advantages of aptamers over antibodies, remarkable is their ability to tolerate a large number of chemical modifications within their backbone or at the termini without losing significant activity. Indeed, aptamers can be easily equipped with a wide variety of reporter groups or coupled to different carriers, nanoparticles, or other biomolecules, thus producing valuable molecular recognition tools effective for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. This review reports an updated overview on fluorescent DNA aptamers, designed to recognize significant cancer biomarkers both in soluble or membrane-bound form. In many examples, the aptamer secondary structure switches induced by target recognition are suitably translated in a detectable fluorescent signal using either fluorescently-labelled or label-free aptamers. The fluorescence emission changes, producing an enhancement ("signal-on") or a quenching ("signal-off") effect, directly reflect the extent of the binding, thereby allowing for quantitative determination of the target in bioanalytical assays. Furthermore, several aptamers conjugated to fluorescent probes proved to be effective for applications in tumour diagnosis and intraoperative surgery, producing tumour-type specific, non-invasive in vivo imaging tools for cancer pre- and post-treatment assessment.
2017
Fluorescence Sensing Using DNA Aptamers in Cancer Research and Clinical Diagnostics / Musumeci, Domenica; Platella, Chiara; Riccardi, Claudia; Moccia, Federica; Montesarchio, Daniela. - In: CANCERS. - ISSN 2072-6694. - 9:174(2017), pp. 1-43. [10.3390/cancers9120174]
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11588/711132
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