Glass-Like Behavior of Magnesium Ions Inside RNA APTamers

RNA nanotechnology breakthrough for targeted release of RNA-based drugs using cell-based aptamers

Nucleic acids play different roles besides storing information and proteins coding. For example, single-stranded nucleic acids can fold into complicated structures with capability of molecular detection, catalyzing bioreactions and therapy. The development of RNA-based therapies has been rapidly progressed in the recent years. RNA aptamers are biomolecules with a size of 10 to 50 nm that can be...

Cations in charge: magnesium ions in RNA folding and catalysis.

Expressing RNA aptamers inside cells to reveal proteome and ribonome function.

Small RNA molecules can participate in complex regulatory networks not merely through Watson-Crick interactions with other RNAs (as in anti-sense RNA), but also by forming discrete structures that bind protein or low-molecular weight targets. RNA aptamers derived from in vitro selections (SELEX) are being used inside cells for at least four purposes: (1) to antagonise normal cellular proteins a...

Selecting RNA aptamers for synthetic biology: investigating magnesium dependence and predicting binding affinity

The ability to generate RNA aptamers for synthetic biology using in vitro selection depends on the informational complexity (IC) needed to specify functional structures that bind target ligands with desired affinities in physiological concentrations of magnesium. We investigate how selection for high-affinity aptamers is constrained by chemical properties of the ligand and the need to bind in l...

RAPID-SELEX for RNA Aptamers

Aptamers are high-affinity ligands selected from DNA or RNA libraries via SELEX, a repetitive in vitro process of sequential selection and amplification steps. RNA SELEX is more complicated than DNA SELEX because of the additional transcription and reverse transcription steps. Here, we report a new selection scheme, RAPID-SELEX (RNA Aptamer Isolation via Dual-cycles SELEX), that simplifies this...