In vitro selection of cancer-speciric RNA aptamers

In this study, nuclease-resistant RNA aptamers that are specific for Jurkat T leukemia cells were selected by a subtractive systemic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX) method. A randomized nuclease-resistant RNA library was incubated with normal peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) in each round to preclude RNAs that recognize the common cellular components on the surface of normal and cancer cells. The precluded RNAs were used for the selection of Jurkat T cell-specific aptamers, and the specific RNAs were then gradually enriched from start to the following selections. After 16 rounds of the subtractive SELEX, the selected aptamers were found to preferentially bind to Jurkat T cells, but not to the normal PBMC, evidenced by fluorescence-activated cell sorting analysis. Thus, the subtractive SELEX can be used to identify ligands to cancer-specific biological markers without prior knowledge of the nature of markers. The aptamers could be applied to specific cell sorting, tumor therapy, and diagnosis, and moreover, to find cancer cell-specific markers.