Aptamers are short, single-stranded oligonucleotides that bind to specific target molecules. The shape-forming feature of single-stranded oligonucleotides provides high affinity and excellent specificity toward targets. Hence, aptamers can be used as analogs of antibodies. In December 2004, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the first aptamer-based therapeutic, pegaptanib (Macugen), targeting vascular endothelial growth factor, for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration. Since then, however, no aptamer medication for public health has appeared. During these relatively silent years, many trials and improvements of aptamer therapeutics have been performed, opening multiple novel directions for the therapeutic application of aptamers. This review summarizes the basic characteristics of aptamers and the chemical modifications available for aptamer therapeutics.

Potential applications for functional RNAs are rapidly expanding, not only to address functions based on primary nucleotide sequences, but also by RNA aptamer, which can suppress the activity of any target molecule. Aptamers are short DNA or RNA folded molecules that can be selected in vitro on the basis of their high affinity for a target molecule. Here, we demonstrate the ability of RNA aptamers to recognize—and bind to—human IgG with high specificity and affinity. An optimized 23-nucleotide aptamer, Apt8-2, was prepared, and was shown to bind to the Fc domain of human IgG, but not to other IgG's, with high affinity. Apt8-2 was observed to compete with protein A, but not with the Fcγ receptor, for IgG binding. NMR chemical-shift analyses localized the aptamer-binding sites on the Fc subdomain, which partially overlaps the protein A binding site but not the Fcγ receptor binding site. The tertiary structures of the predicted recognition sites on the Fc domain differ significantly between human IgG and other species of IgGs; this, in part, accounts for the high specificity of the selected aptamer. Apt8-2 can therefore be used as a protein A alternative for affinity purification of human IgG and therapeutic antibodies. Using Apt8-2 would have several potential advantages, raising the possibility of developing new applications based on aptamer design.

Translation termination in eukaryotes requires a codon-specific (class-I) release factor, eRF1, and a GTP/GDP-dependent (class-II) release factor, eRF3. The model of “molecular mimicry between release factors and tRNA” predicts that eRF1 mimics tRNA to read the stop codon and that eRF3 mimics elongation factor EF-Tu to bring eRF1 to the A site of the ribosome for termination of protein synthesis. In this study, we set up three systems, in vitro affinity binding, a yeast two-hybrid system, and in vitro competition assay, to determine the eRF3-binding site of eRF1 using the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe proteins and creating systematic deletions in eRF1. The in vitro affinity binding experiments demonstrated that the predicted tRNA-mimicry truncation of eRF1 (Sup45) forms a stable complex with eRF3 (Sup35). All three test systems revealed that the most critical binding site is located at the C-terminal region of eRF1, which is conserved among eukaryotic eRF1s and rich in acidic amino acids. To our surprise, however, the C-terminal deletion eRF1 seems to be sufficient for cell viability in spite of the severe defect in eRF3 binding when expressed in a temperature-sensitive sup45 mutant of the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. These results cannot be accounted for by the simple “eRF3–EF-Tu mimicry” model, but may provide new insight into the eRF3 function for translation termination in eukaryotes.

Aptamers are short single-stranded nucleic acids with high affinity to target molecules and are applicable to therapeutics and diagnostics. Regardless of an increasing number of reported aptamers, the structural basis of the interaction of RNA aptamer with proteins is poorly understood. Here, we determined the 2.15 Å crystal structure of the Fc fragment of human IgG1 (hFc1) complexed with an anti-Fc RNA aptamer. The aptamer adopts a characteristic structure fit to hFc1 that is stabilized by a calcium ion, and the binding activity of the aptamer can be controlled many times by calcium chelation and addition. Importantly, the aptamer–hFc1 interaction involves mainly van der Waals contacts and hydrogen bonds rather than electrostatic forces, in contrast to other known aptamer–protein complexes. Moreover, the aptamer–hFc1 interaction involves human IgG-specific amino acids, rendering the aptamer specific to human IgGs, and not crossreactive to other species IgGs. Hence, the aptamer is a potent alternative for protein A affinity purification of Fc-fusion proteins and therapeutic antibodies. These results demonstrate, from a structural viewpoint, that conformational plasticity and selectivity of an RNA aptamer is achieved by multiple interactions other than electrostatic forces, which is applicable to many protein targets of low or no affinity to nucleic acids.