Aptamer-Based Probes for Cancer Diagnostics and Treatment

Aptamers are single-stranded DNA or RNA oligomers that have the ability to generate unique and diverse tertiary structures that bind to cognate molecules with high specificity. In recent years, aptamer researches have witnessed a huge surge, owing to its unique properties, such as high specificity and binding affinity, low immunogenicity and toxicity, and simplicity of synthesis with negligible batch-to-batch variation. Aptamers may bind to targets, such as various cancer biomarkers, making them applicable for a wide range of cancer diagnosis and treatment. In cancer diagnostic applications, aptamers are used as molecular probes instead of antibodies. They have the potential to detect various cancer-associated biomarkers. For cancer therapeutic purposes, aptamers can serve as therapeutic or delivery agents. The chemical stabilization and modification strategies for aptamers may expand their serum half-life and shelf life. However, aptamer-based probes for cancer diagnosis and therapy still face several challenges for successful clinical translation. A deeper understanding of nucleic acid chemistry, tissue distribution, and pharmacokinetics is required in the development of aptamer-based probes. This review summarizes their application in cancer diagnostics and treatments based on different localization of target biomarkers, as well as current challenges and future prospects

HO TSIA

Ho Tsia was formed in November 2020 to participate in the Online Christmas Bazaar. The business offers the essence of Chinese cuisine into people\u27s daily lives with easily accessible Chinese meals. The company is located in Binondo, Manila. According to Ho Tsia\u27s previous market research, people living in Metro Manila would like authentic Chinese dim sums that are affordable and delivered to their homes without taking the risk of going outside during the pandemic. With this information, the company decided to target people ages 18-34 and Chinese Filipinos. Although competitive rivalry is high, Ho Tsia has employed the use of digital marketing that allows the company to establish its brand through social media platforms permanently. The company is a corporation invested by the eight owners through corporate financing. It financially issues cash dividends to executive members. Currently, the executive members have invested a total of P400,000 towards the business

Building a chimera of aptamer-antisense oligonucleotide for silencing galectin-1 gene

Galectin-1 is closely related with immune systems, and its overexpression may cause tumor metastasis. Owing to the better stability of antisense oligonucleotides than siRNA, we constructed a chimera of aptamer-antisense oligonucleotide (Apt-AS) for silencing the galectin-1 gene specifically. For studying the endocytosis pathways of Apt-AS by aptamer targeted delivery, we marked the 3' terminus of Apt-AS with Alexa Flour 488 (Apt-AS488) so as to trace the pathways through the confocal microscope. Furthermore, Apt-AS was used to silence the expression of galectin-1. The results showed Apt-AS entered cells by a caveolae mediated endocytosis pathway, and the aptamer-antisense chimeras did not impair the antisense gene silencing efficiency. Moreover Apt-AS could improve the cellular uptake and selectively entered cells

An Ultrasound-Activated Nanozyme Sonosensitizer for Photoacoustic Imaging-Guided Breast Cancer Sonodynamic and Starvation Combination Therapy

Sonodynamic therapy (SDT) is a promising ultrasound (US)-triggered therapeutic modality for anticancer treatments due to its high penetration, safety, and noninvasiveness. Its therapeutic efficiency is closely related to the performance of sonosensitizers and the oxygen concentration of the tumor microenvironment (TME). Herein, inspired by the adhesion of cocklebur, a rough-surface sonosensitizer gold platinum encapsulated with magnesium silicate loaded with glucose oxidase (AuPt@MgSiO3@GOx, APMS-GOx) with an enzymatic cascade activity was designed to improve delivery capability, produce reactive oxygen species, and reduce the glucose concentration in tumor tissue. The rough surface of APMS-GOx can improve the ability of nanomaterials to deliver to tumor areas. The enzymatic cascade reaction of APMS-GOx can induce starvation therapy and improve the level of oxygen. Adequate oxygen can not only alleviate hypoxia TME but also further convert to singlet oxygen (1O2) by APMS-GOx under US activation. Moreover, the activity of GOx increases due to the involvement of US, resulting in a positive effect on starvation therapy. Furthermore, APMS-GOx exhibits near-infrared absorption properties, providing a photoacoustic imaging-guided combination breast tumor therapy strategy

A High-Resolution Enhancer Atlas of the Developing Telencephalon

The mammalian telencephalon plays critical roles in cognition, motor function, and emotion. While many of the genes required for its development have been identified, the distant-acting regulatory sequences orchestrating their in vivo expression are mostly unknown. Here we describe a digital atlas of in vivo enhancers active in subregions of the developing telencephalon. We identified over 4,600 candidate embryonic forebrain enhancers and studied the in vivo activity of 329 of these sequences in transgenic mouse embryos. We generated serial sets of histological brain sections for 145 reproducible forebrain enhancers, resulting in a publicly accessible web-based data collection comprising over 32,000 sections. We also used epigenomic analysis of human and mouse cortex tissue to directly compare the genome-wide enhancer architecture in these species. These data provide a primary resource for investigating gene regulatory mechanisms of telencephalon development and enable studies of the role of distant-acting enhancers in neurodevelopmental disorders