High enrichment of nucleobase-modified aptamers in early selection rounds by microbeads-assisted capillary electrophoresis SELEX

Abstract

Nucleobase-modified aptamers are attractive candidates for diagnostic and therapeutic agents due to the high affinity, stability and functionality. However, since even conventional SELEX requires many selection rounds, acquisition of modified aptamers is much more laborious. Herein, microbeads-assisted capillary electrophoresis (MACE)-SELEX was applied against thrombin using the indole-modified DNA library. After only three selection rounds, we successfully enriched the modified aptamers and they showed slower off-rate than reported aptamers, suggesting MACE-SELEX is a promising approach for rapid identification of modified aptamers.