DNA aptamer evolved by cell-SELEX for recognition of prostate cancer

PLoS One. 2014 Jun 23;9(6):e100243. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0100243. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Morbidity and mortality of prostate cancer (PCa) have increased in recent years worldwide. Currently existing methods for diagnosis and treatment do not make the situation improve, especially for hormone refractory prostate cancer (HRPC). The lack of molecular probes for PCa hindered the early diagnosis of metastasis and accurate staging for PCa. In this work, we have developed a new aptamer probe Wy-5a against PCa cell line PC-3 by cell-SELEX technique. Wy-5a shows high specificity to the target cells with dissociation constants in the nanomolar range, and does not recognize other tested PCa cell lines and other tested tumor cell lines. The staining of clinical tissue sections with fluorescent dye labeled Wy-5a shows that sections from high risk group with metastasis exhibited stronger fluorescence and sections from Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) did not exhibit notable fluorescence, which suggests that aptamer Wy-5a may bind to protein related to the progression of PCa. The high affinity and specificity of Wy-5a makes this aptamer hold potential for application in diagnosis and target therapy of PCa.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aptamers, Nucleotide / chemistry*
  • Aptamers, Nucleotide / pharmacology*
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Prostatic Neoplasms / diagnosis*
  • Prostatic Neoplasms / metabolism*
  • SELEX Aptamer Technique*

Substances

  • Aptamers, Nucleotide

Grants and funding

The authors acknowledge the financial support from National Natural Science Foundation of China (81172430, 81372728, 21205124 and 81201694) and Grant 973 Program (2011CB935800) and Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (20120171120059). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.