毛细管电泳在核酸适配体研究及核酸适配体筛选中的应用

核酸适配体是指通过指数富集配体系统进化(SELEX)技术从随机寡核苷酸文库中筛选得到的高亲和性与特异性的寡核苷酸序列配体。毛细管电泳是高效、快速、低成本的微量分离分析技术。应用毛细管电泳高效、快速筛选核酸适配体是近几年出现的新方法。本文介绍了核酸适配体筛选过程中的主要分离方法如亲和色谱、醋酸纤维素膜、凝胶电泳和磁性分离等方法,并对近年来毛细管电泳在核酸适配体中的亲和作用研究以及用于核酸适配体筛选(CE-SELEX)的主要方法(ECEEM,NECEEM,Non-SELEX和三者比较)和研究进展进行了综述。     

前列腺癌细胞核酸适配体支持向量机分类模型

本文将前列腺癌(Prostate Cancer,PCa)PC-3M-1E8细胞为标靶的核酸适配体序列翻译成氨基酸序列,计算氨基酸序列的分子参数,然后用这些分子参数建立核酸适配体亲和性的构-效关系模型。所用的候选核酸适配体序列是采用以细胞为靶标的指数富集配体系统进化(Cell-SELEX)技术筛选得到。模型训练集、测试集分别包含150、50条核酸序列,均由第3轮和11轮的候选核酸适配体组成。将第3轮的核酸序列类标签值设置为"1",代表低亲和性、低特异性的候选核酸适配序列;将第11轮筛选所得核酸序列类标签值设置为"2",代表高亲和性、高特异性候选核酸适配序列。基于二值分类问题的支持向量机分类(SVC)算法用于建模。SVC模型对训练集、测试集的预测准确度分别为87.3%、86%。另外,采用SVC模型对第5、7、9轮的序列也进行了预测。第3、5、7、9、11轮的高亲和性与高特异性核酸适配体的分率分别是0.23、0.41、0.61、0.64、0.87,预测结果符合SELEX筛选的适配体进行规律。     

基于聚多巴胺磁性纳米微球的洛美沙星适配体筛选研究

基于纳米材料与单链核苷酸可能存在的氢键作用、π-π结合、电荷转移等非共价结合方式,可快速区分对目标靶分子有特异性结合的单链核酸适配体候选分子,从而缩短适配体筛选周期、提高筛选的成功率.本研究采用聚多巴胺磁性纳米微球(MNPs@PDAs)为分离载体,以洛美沙星(LMX)为靶标分子,利用磁分离技术建立了一种小分子的适配体筛选新方法.经过7轮筛选,获得了对洛美沙星分子具有高亲和性(KD=(17.57±0.5)nmol/L)的核酸适配体AF-3,且AF-3对于结构相似分子培氟沙星(PEFX)、氧氟沙星(OFLX)、诺氟沙星(NFLX)不具有亲和性.基于MNPs@PDAs的筛选方法有望于应用于其它重要靶分子的高效适配体探针获取.     

蛋白质的核酸适配体筛选的研究进展

核酸适配体是通过指数富集系统配体进化(SELEX)筛选获得的,与靶标具有高亲和力和特异性结合的单链DNA或RNA。蛋白质是生命进程中的关键功能分子。近年来,以蛋白质为靶标的适配体筛选在蛋白质相关的基础及应用研究领域受到广泛关注。核酸适配体应用性能的优劣取决于其亲和力、特异性与稳定性。目前,适配体筛选方法的优化主要是提高筛选效率、提升适配体性能及降低筛选成本。适配体主要筛选步骤包括复合物分离、核酸库优化、次级库的富集、适配体序列分析以及亲和力表征等。迄今为止,以蛋白质-核酸复合物的分离为核心步骤的适配体筛选方法有20余种。本文归纳总结了2005年以来以蛋白质为靶标的适配体筛选技术,讨论了各方法的缺陷与局限。介绍了核酸库的设计优化方法、适配体的序列特征,以及常用的亲和力表征方法。     

核酸适配体在微流控芯片中筛选及病毒性疾病中应用

核酸适配体是短的、单链DNA或RNA序列。相较于抗体成本高、不稳定、免疫原性、难修饰的问题,核酸适配体作为新一代亲和试剂,有着免疫原性低、易修饰、靶标范围广等优势。通过指数富集配体系统进化技术(Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential Enrichment,SELEX)可获得与靶标分子特异性结合的核酸适配体,而如何提高核酸适配体筛选效率是核酸适配体广泛应用的一个瓶颈问题。目前,提高核酸适配体筛选效率的方法种类较多,而微流控SELEX的发展,加速了核酸适配体的发现。核酸适配体作为各种靶标的识别分子,具有诊断和治疗特定疾病的潜力。鉴于此,本文重点介绍核酸适配体在微流控芯片领域进行筛选的研究进展,以及阐述其在病毒性疾病中的应用以及展望。     

全细胞的核酸适配体筛选的研究进展

核酸适配体(aptamer)是从人工合成的随机单链DNA(ssDNA)或RNA文库中筛选得到的,能够高亲和力、高特异性地与靶标结合的ssDNA或RNA。核酸适配体的靶标范围广,可包括小分子、蛋白质、细胞、微生物等多种靶标。其中以细胞为靶标的适配体在生物感应、分子成像、医学诊断、药物传输和疾病治疗等领域有很大的应用潜能。但全细胞的核酸适配体筛选过程复杂,筛选难度大,筛选的适配体性能不佳是导致目前可用的适配体非常有限的主要原因。由于细胞表面蛋白质在提取纯化过程中分子结构和形态会发生改变,故以膜表面蛋白质为靶标筛选的适配体很难应用于识别整体细胞。以全细胞为靶标的核酸适配体筛选则不需要准确了解细胞表面的分子结构,筛选过程中可保持细胞的天然状态,以全细胞为靶标筛选出的核酸适配体有望直接用于全细胞识别。本文总结了2008~2015年全细胞的核酸适配体筛选的研究进展,介绍了靶细胞的分类、核酸库的设计、筛选条件和方法以及核酸适配体的亲和力表征方法等。并列出全细胞靶标的核酸适配体序列。     

毛细管电泳筛选盐酸克伦特罗核酸适配体的方法研究

毛细管电泳(CE)被认为是核酸适配体筛选的高效方法,其无需介质固定,在溶液相中完成筛选,分离高效,样品用量少,筛选成本低。但由于小分子靶与核酸的结合位点少,且小分子的核酸复合物与核酸库的电泳迁移率差异小,通常认为CE-SELEX不适用于筛选小分子靶标的适配体。本研究建立了基于CESELEX的盐酸克伦特罗靶标的的适配体筛选方法。将80 nt的ssDNA库与盐酸克伦特罗特混合孵育,通过CZE-UV分离混合物。收集ssDNA库峰前的馏分,通过PCR扩增和ssDNA制备,完成第一轮筛选。将次级核酸库经过3轮筛选,获得10条ssDNA序列。选择3条亲和力较强的序列Apt 4、Apt 7、Apt 12,通过CE-LIF测定其与盐酸克伦特罗的K_d分别为9.315×10~(-7)mol/L、1.040×10~(-6)mol/L和1.143×10~(-5)mol/L。软件分析表明,上述3条序列均可形成茎环二级结构,其中Apt 4茎环结构的自由能最低,结构最稳定。以沙丁胺醇为对照,验证了3条序列,具有较高的特异性。     

小分子靶标的核酸适配体筛选的研究进展

核酸适配体(aptamer)是通过指数富集配体系统进化(SELEX)技术筛选得到的核糖核酸(RNA)或单链脱氧核糖核酸(ssDNA)。核酸适配体通过高亲和力特异性地识别小分子、蛋白质、细胞、微生物等多种靶标,在生物、医药、食品和环境检测等领域的应用日渐增多。但目前实际可用的核酸适配体有限,其筛选过程复杂,筛选难度大,制约了其应用。与生物大分子、细胞和微生物等靶标不同,小分子靶标与核酸分子的结合位点少、亲和力弱,且靶标通常需要固定在载体上。此外,小分子靶标结合核酸形成的复合物与核酸自身的大小、质量、电荷性质等方面差异较小,二者的分离难度大。故小分子靶标的核酸适配体筛选过程与大分子和细胞等复合靶标相比有明显差异,筛选难度更大。因此需要根据其自身结构特点和核酸适配体的应用目的选定靶标或核酸库的固定方法,优化靶标核酸复合物的分离方法。本文介绍了不同类型小分子(具有基团差异的单分子、含相同基团分子和手性分子等)靶标的选择及其核酸适配体的筛选方法,并对核酸库的设计、与靶标结合的核酸的分离方法和亲和作用表征方法进行了介绍,列出了自2008年以来报道的40余种小分子靶标的核酸适配体序列和复合物的平衡解离常数(K_d)。     

细菌的核酸适配体筛选的研究进展

核酸适配体(aptamer)是通过指数富集配体系统进化技术(SELEX)筛选的能够以高亲和力和高特异性识别靶标分子或细胞的核糖核酸(RNA)和单链脱氧核糖核酸(ssDNA)。作为化学抗体,核酸适配体的制备和合成比抗体的成本更低。核酸适配体的靶标范围极其广泛,包括小分子、生物大分子、细菌和细胞等。针对细菌靶标筛选的适配体,目前主要应用于食品、医药和环境中的细菌检测。细菌的核酸适配体筛选可以通过离心法将菌体-适配体复合物与游离的适配体分离,并通过荧光成像、荧光光谱分析、流式细胞仪分选、DNA捕获元件、酶联适配体分析等方法表征适配体与靶标的相互作用。筛选出的适配体可结合生物、化学检测方法用于细菌检测。本文介绍了细菌适配体的筛选和表征方法以及基于适配体的检测方法的最新进展,分析了不同检测方法的利弊,并列出了2011~2015年筛选的细菌的核酸适配体。     

动力学毛细管电泳法求解蛋白质与单链脱氧核糖核苷酸结合的解离常数及可靠性分析

平衡混合物的非平衡毛细管电泳(NECEEM)可用于测定复合物的解离常数(K_d)。该文以单链脱氧核糖核苷酸结合蛋白(SSB)和单链脱氧核糖核苷酸(ssDNA)相互作用为模型,分析了相互作用强弱的电泳图谱特征,测定了不同条件下复合物的K_d,建立了基于积分偏差的误差分析方法。结果表明,SSB与ssDNA相互作用强弱所致的电泳图差异、SSB与ssDNA的浓度比、毛细管分离温度均影响K_d的计算。此外,基于25℃时SSB与5′-GGTTGGTGTGGTTGG-3′(15mer)人凝血酶适配体作用模型的数值分析结果表明,在现有实验条件下,手动积分峰面积时产生的面积偏差对K_d计算结果有影响,但在10%的偏差区间内,所求K_d值的最大相对偏差小于7%,所求K_d值的误差可忽略。该文证实了基于NECEEM求解动力学相关参数的方法可靠。     

Pressure controllable aptamers picking strategy by targets competition

Selection of aptamers with high affinity and good specificity requires multiple rounds of alternating steps of separation and PCR amplification.Herein,we proposed a novel high-efficiency aptamers picking strategy:One-round pressure controllable selection(OPCS).OPCS integrates four types of screening superiority,high-efficiency separation,one-round selection and PCR amplification,synchronous negative selection and targets competition.The controllable screening pressure can be achieved through two approaches,balanced competition by the regulation of protein concentration,and dominant competition by introducing a predatory protein with high concentration.In OPCS process,two proteins were co-incubated with one ssDNA library,and each protein bound its favorable sequences specifically and formed protein-ss D NA complex re spectively.Meanwhile,one protein could supply/sufferthe picking pressure of affinity and specificity to/from another,which eliminated weakly bound or unbound sequences for each other.Two complexes could be separated and collected conveniently,and aptamers for two proteins obtained synchronously with high affinity and good specificity.This strategy not only provides a more effective way for aptamers selection,but shows great potential in other ligands or drugs selection.     

Single-Round DNA Aptamer Selection by Combined Use of Capillary Electrophoresis and Next Generation Sequencing: An Aptaomics Approach for Identifying Unique Functional Protein-Binding DNA Aptamers

In DNA aptamer selection, existing methods do not discriminate aptamer sequences based on their binding affinity and function and the reproducibility of the selection is often poor, even for the selection of well-known aptamers like those that bind the commonly used model protein thrombin. In the present study, a novel single-round selection method (SR-CE selection) was developed by combining capillary electrophoresis (CE) with next generation sequencing. Using SR-CE selection, a successful semi-quantitative and semi-comprehensive aptamer selection for thrombin was demonstrated with high reproducibility for the first time. Selection rules based on dissociation equilibria and kinetics were devised to obtain families of analogous sequences. Selected sequences of the same family were shown to bind thrombin with high affinity. Furthermore, data acquired from SR-CE selection was mined by creating sub-libraries that were categorized by the functionality of the aptamers (e. g., pre-organized aptamers versus structure-induced aptamers). Using this approach, a novel fluorescent molecular recognition sensor for thrombin with nanomolar detection limits was discovered. Thus, in this proof-of-concept report, we have demonstrated the potential of a “DNA Aptaomics” approach to systematically design functional aptamers as well as to obtain high affinity aptamers.     

Cocaine detection by structure-switch aptamer-based capillary zone electrophoresis

Aptamers, which are nucleic acid oligonucleotides that can bind targets with high affinity and specificity, have been widely applied as affinity probes in capillary electrophoresis (CE). Due to relative weak interaction between aptamers and small molecules, the application of aptamer-based CE is still limited in certain compounds. A new strategy that is based on the aptamer structure-switch concept was designed for small molecule detection by a novel CE method. A carboxyfluorescein (fluorescein amidite, FAM) label DNA aptamer was first incubated with partial complementary strand (CS), and then the free aptamer and the aptamer-CS duplex were well separated and determined by metal cation mediated CE/laser-induced fluorescence. When the target was introduced into the incubated sample, the hybridized form was destabilized, resulting in the changes of the fluorescence intensities of the free aptamer and the aptamer-CS duplex. The length of CS was investigated and 12 mer CS showed the best sensitivity for the detection of cocaine. The presented CE-LIF method, which combines the separation power of CE with the specificity of interactions occurring between target, aptamer, and CS, could be a universal detection strategy for other aptamer-specified small molecules.     

Kinetic capillary electrophoresis-based affinity screening of aptamer clones

DNA aptamers are single stranded DNA (ssDNA) molecules artificially selected from random-sequence DNA libraries for their specific binding to a certain target. DNA aptamers have a number of advantages over antibodies and promise to replace them in both diagnostic and therapeutic applications. The development of DNA aptamers involves three major stages: library enrichment, obtaining individual DNA clones, and the affinity screening of the clones. The purpose of the screening is to obtain the nucleotide sequences of aptamers and the binding parameters of their interaction with the target. Highly efficient approaches have been recently developed for the first two stages, while the third stage remained the rate-limiting one. Here, we introduce a new method for affinity screening of individual DNA aptamer clones. The proposed method amalgamates: (i) aptamer amplification by asymmetric PCR (PCR with a primer ratio different from unity), (ii) analysis of aptamer-target interaction, combining in-capillary mixing of reactants by transverse diffusion of laminar flow profiles (TDLFP) and affinity analysis using kinetic capillary electrophoresis (KCE), and (iii) sequencing of only aptamers with satisfying binding parameters. For the first time we showed that aptamer clones can be directly used in TDLFP/KCE-based affinity analysis without an additional purification step after asymmetric PCR amplification. We also demonstrated that mathematical modeling of TDLFP-based mixing allows for the determination of K_d values for the in-capillary reaction of an aptamer and a target and that the obtained K_d values can be used for the accurate affinity ranking of aptamers. The proposed method does not require the knowledge of aptamer sequences before screening, avoids lengthy (3-5 h) purification steps of aptamer clones, and minimizes reagent consumption to nanoliters.     

Selection of aptamers for signal transduction proteins by capillary electrophoresis

High‐affinity aptamers for important signal transduction proteins, i.e. Cdc42‐GTP, p21‐activated kinase1 (PAK1) and MRCK (myotonic dystrophy kinase‐related Cdc42‐binding kinase) α were successfully selected in the low micro‐ to nanomolar range using non‐systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX) with at least three orders of magnitude enhancement from their respective bulk affinity of naïve DNA library. In the non‐SELEX procedure, CE was used as a highly efficient affinity method to select aptamers for the desired molecular target through a process that involved repetitive steps of partitioning, known as non‐equilibrium CE of equilibrium mixtures with no PCR amplification between successive steps. Various non‐SELEX conditions including the type, concentration and pH of the run buffer were optimized. Other considerations such as salt composition of selection buffer, protein concentration and sample injection size were also studied for high stringency during selection. After identifying the best enriched aptamer pool, randomly selected clones from the aptamer pool were sequenced to obtain the individual DNA sequences. The dissociation constants (K_d) of these sequences were in the low micromolar to nanomolar range, indicating high affinity to the respective proteins. The best binders were also subjected to sequence alignment to generate a phylogenetic tree. No significant consensus region based on approximately 50 sequences for each protein was observed, suggesting the high efficiency of non‐SELEX for the selection of numerous unique sequences with high selectivity.     

A Universal DNA Aptamer that Recognizes Spike Proteins of Diverse SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern

We report on a unique DNA aptamer, denoted MSA52, that displays universally high affinity for the spike proteins of wildtype SARS-CoV-2 as well as the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Epsilon, Kappa, Delta and Omicron variants. Using an aptamer pool produced from round 13 of selection against the S1 domain of the wildtype spike protein, we carried out one-round SELEX experiments using five different trimeric spike proteins from variants, followed by high-throughput sequencing and sequence alignment analysis of aptamers that formed complexes with all proteins. A previously unidentified aptamer, MSA52, showed K_d values ranging from 2 to 10 nM for all variant spike proteins, and also bound similarly to variants not present in the reselection experiments. This aptamer also recognized pseudotyped lentiviruses (PL) expressing eight different spike proteins of SARS-CoV-2 with K_d values between 20 and 50 pM, and was integrated into a simple colorimetric assay for detection of multiple PL variants. This discovery provides evidence that aptamers can be generated with high affinity to multiple variants of a single protein, including emerging variants, making it well-suited for molecular recognition of rapidly evolving targets such as those found in SARS-CoV-2.     

Selection of cholesterol esterase aptamers using a dual‐partitioning approach

Non‐systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment and other capillary‐based methods have grown in popularity for selection of aptamers since they provide a fast and efficient partitioning method when compared to classical techniques. Despite promising developments in these techniques, a major obstacle needs to be overcome for capillary‐based selections to be widely accepted. Due to the small injection volumes associated with CE, only a small proportion of the nucleic acid library can be partitioned at any one time. In this paper, we propose a new two‐step method for the selection of aptamers which firstly incorporates a nitrocellulose membrane filter followed by CE. This technique allows for nonbinding sequences to be eliminated, reducing the library size before subsequent capillary‐based partitioning, while still reducing the time taken for aptamers to be selected. We demonstrated this technique on the selection of aptamers for cholesterol esterase and the highest binding truncated aptamer CES 4T displayed a K_D of 203 ± 14 nM. In addition, an increase in the number of sequences partitioned was estimated using spectrophotometry and capillary injection volumes. The results suggested that for successful selection a two‐step approach is needed. This hybrid technique could be used to select aptamers that bind to targets both in solution and immobilized onto a stationary phase, allowing the aptamers to be used in different binding environments.     

Immobilization-free screening of aptamers assisted by graphene oxide

Graphene oxide (GO) has the ability to separate free short ssDNA in heterogeneous solution. This feature is applied as a label free platform for screening of aptamers that bind to their target with high affinity and specificity. Herein, we report an aptamer selection strategy for Nampt protein based on GO.