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.

1. What is an aptamer (5 pts)
2. How would an aptamer function to protect the cell from the toxin (5 pts)

Answer 1

a. Aptamer is the smallest unit of repeating structure .   

They are similar to monoclonal antibodies. ..

They are short, single-stranded DNA or RNA molecules that can selectively bind to a specific target with high affinity and specificity. ..

They Provide opportunities for structure based drug design strategies relevant to therapeutic intervention.. .

It can be prepared using the SELEX.  

Selex is nothing but selection evolution ligands by exponential enrichment.

b. Aptamers have an innate ability to bind to any molecule they're targeted at, including cancer cells and bacteria...

Aptomer inhibits it's activity to protect the cell from toxin.  

Adding an unnatural base to a standard aptamer can increase its ability bind to target molecules.. and it will be helpful for the protection of cell.  

Aptamers have been used to create functions in PCR enzymes to prevent non-specific amplification. .

Controls the release of therapeutics. .