Light Regulation of Aptamer Activity: An Anti-Thrombin Aptamer with Caged Thymidine Nucleobases

摘要

Aptamers are short single-stranded nucleic acids that fold into well-defined three-dimensional shapes. They bind with high affinity and specificity to their respective target molecules and possess high inhibitory potential. These characteristics make them very interesting tools for molecular biology as well as for diagnostic and therapeutic applications.One of the most intensively studied aptamers is a 15mer ssDNA molecule (A_1, Figure 1) that binds to and inactivates alpha-thrombin, which is a key player in the blood clotting cascade. The aptamer folds into a stable G-quartet structure and only consists of six thymidine and nine guanosine nucleotides.