July 10, 2020
Bulletin interne de l'Institut Pasteur
Using medicinal chemistry to improve diagnostic methods
Aptamers are DNA or RNA molecules that can bind with high affinity and/or specificity to target molecules. Given their properties, aptamers offer numerous advantages for diagnostic, biodetection and nanotechnology applications. However, aptamers being made of natural nucleic acids suffer from certain limitations. For instance, they are rapidly degraded when directly injected into patients, and their relatively low chemical diversity prevents them from binding to certain targets. Scientists at the Institut Pasteur successfully improved the properties of aptamers by applying techniques that are commonly used in medicinal chemistry.