Chemical Research in Chinese Universities ›› 2022, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (4): 894-901.doi: 10.1007/s40242-022-2124-8

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Progress in DNA Aptamers as Recognition Components for Protein Functional Regulation

HU Lingling, LIU Ke, REN Guolan, LIANG Jiangong, WU Yuan   

  1. College of Science, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, P. R. China
  • Received:2022-04-02 Revised:2022-05-22 Online:2022-08-01 Published:2022-07-01
  • Contact: WU Yuan E-mail:yuanwu@mail.hzau.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No. 21904046).

Abstract: Proteins play a central role in all domains of life, and precise regulation of their activity is essential for understanding the related biological processes and therapeutic functions. Nucleic acid aptamers, the molecular recognition components derived from systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment(SELEX), can specifically identify proteins with antibody-like recognition characteristics and help to regulate their activity. This minireview covers the SELEX-based selection of protein-binding aptamers, membrane protein analytical techniques based on aptamer-mediated target recognition, aptamer-mediated functional regulation of proteins, including membrane receptors and non-membrane proteins(thrombin as a model), as well as the potential challenges and prospects regarding aptamer-mediated protein manipulation, aiming to supply some useful information for researchers in this field.

Key words: Aptamer, Protein activity regulation, Systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment(SELEX), Membrane receptor, Thrombin