Improved Cancer Targeting by Multimerizing Aptamers on Nanoscaffolds.

Aptamers are short single-stranded oligonucleotides selected to bind with high affinity and specificity to a target. In contrast to antibodies, aptamers can be produced in large-scale systems without the need for any biological agents, making them highly attractive as targeting ligands for bioimaging and drug delivery. For applications it is often desirable to multimerize the aptamers in order to increase their binding strength and overall specificity.

A self-assembled, modular nucleic acid-based nanoscaffold for multivalent theranostic medicine.

: Within the field of personalized medicine there is an increasing focus on designing flexible, multifunctional drug delivery systems that combine high efficacy with minimal side effects, by tailoring treatment to the individual. : We synthesized a chemically stabilized ~4 nm nucleic acid nanoscaffold, and characterized its assembly, stability and functional properties and . We tested its flexibility towards multifunctionalization by conjugating various biomolecules to the four modules of the system.