Chemical Research in Chinese Universities ›› 2022, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (4): 847-855.doi: 10.1007/s40242-022-2087-9

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Current Advances in Aptamer-based Biomolecular Recognition and Biological Process Regulation

CHEN Sisi, ZHANG Lei, YUAN Quan, TAN Jie   

  1. Molecular Science and Biomedicine Laboratory(MBL), Institute of Chemical Biology and Nanomedicine(ICBN), State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, P. R. China
  • Received:2022-03-11 Revised:2022-04-08 Online:2022-08-01 Published:2022-07-01
  • Contact: YUAN Quan;TAN Jie E-mail:yuanquan@whu.edu.cn;tanjie0416@hnu.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.22174038, 21925401, 21904037).

Abstract: The interaction between biomolecules with their target ligands plays a great role in regulating biological functions. Aptamers are short oligonucleotide sequences that can specifically recognize target biomolecules via structural complementarity and thus regulate related biological functions. In the past ten years, aptamers have made great progress in target biomolecule recognition, becoming a powerful tool to regulate biological functions. At present, there are many reviews on aptamers applied in biomolecular recognition, but few reviews pay attention to aptamer-based regulation of biological functions. Here, we summarize the approaches to enhancing aptamer affinity and the advancements of aptamers in regulating enzymatic activity, cellular immunity and cellular behaviors. Furthermore, this review discusses the challenges and future perspectives of aptamers in target recognition and biological functions regulation, aiming to provide some promising ideas for future regulation of biomolecular functions in a complex biological environment.

Key words: Aptamer, Molecular recognition, Biological process regulation