Analytical Sciences

High Enrichment of Nucleobase-modified Aptamers in Early Selection Rounds by Microbeads-assisted Capillary Electrophoresis SELEX

Koji WAKUI,* Akihito ABE,* Toru YOSHITOMI,* Hitoshi FURUSHO,*,** and Keitaro YOSHIMOTO*,***

*Department of Life Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan
**Chemical General Division, Nissan Chemical Industries, Ltd., 2-10-2 Tsuboi-nishi, Funabashi, Chiba 274-8507, Japan
***JST, PRESTO, The University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan

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.

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