Question

You wish to develop an antitoxin therapeutic. Your plan is to create a molecule which will inactivate the ability of the toxin to penetrate the cell membrane, thus preventing the toxic effects. You decide to base the therapeutic on an aptamer design. a. What is an aptamer (5 pts) b. How would an aptamer function to protect the cell from the toxin

Answer 1

a. An aptamer is an oligonucleotide or peptide molecule which binds to a specific target molecule. Once the aptamer has bound to the specific target molecule it can do two processes which are inhibition or excitation of the target molecules. Natural aptamers such as riboswitches also do exist. But there is a wide range of application for artificial aptamers which are conjugated by specific molecule for doing basic research or for clinical application.

b. The toxin always penetrate the cell from the specific molecules that allow the entry of the toxin into the cell. These molecules are most likely protein molecules such as receptors that facilitate the entry of toxin. The aptamers can target these protein molecule and bind to them, thereby inhibiting there role of entry of toxin into the cell and thus preventing the toxin entry. Hence in this way aptamers are used as an antitoxin therapeutic.

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