Review Article Using Aptamers for Cancer Biomarker Discovery

Copyright © 2013 Yun Min Chang et al.is is an open access article distributed under theCreativeCommonsAttributionLicense, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Aptamers are single-stranded synthetic DNA- or RNA-based oligonucleotides that fold into various shapes to bind to a speci�c target, which includes proteins, metals, and molecules. Aptamers have high a�nity and high speci�city that are comparable to that of antibodies.ey are obtained using iterativemethod, called (Systematic Evolution of Ligands byExponential Enrichment) SELEX and cell-based SELEX (cell-SELEX). Aptamers can be paired with recent advances in nanotechnology, microarray, micro�uidics, and other technologies for applications in clinical medicine. One particular area that aptamers can shed a light on is biomarker discovery. Biomarkers are important in diagnosis and treatment of cancer. In this paper, we will describe ways in which aptamers can be used to discover biomarkers for cancer diagnosis and therapeutics. 1