REVIEW: Advances in the Application of Modified Nucleotides in SELEX Technology

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O. M. Antipova^1,2,a*, E. G. Zavyalova^1,2, A. V. Golovin^2,3,4, G. V. Pavlova^2,4,5,6, A. M. Kopylov^1,2, and R. V. Reshetnikov^2,3,4,5

¹Lomonosov Moscow State University, Faculty of Chemistry, 119991 Moscow, Russia

²Apto-Pharm Ltd., 115564 Moscow, Russia

³Lomonosov Moscow State University, Faculty of Bioengineering and Bioinformatics, 119234 Moscow, Russia

⁴Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Institute of Molecular Medicine, 119991 Moscow, Russia

⁵Institute of Gene Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119334 Moscow, Russia

⁶Burdenko National Scientific and Practical Center for Neurosurgery, Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation, 125047 Moscow, Russia

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received December 26, 2017; Revision received May 7, 2018

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Aptamers are widely used as molecular recognition elements for detecting and blocking functional biological molecules. Since the common “alphabet” of DNA and RNA consists of only four letters, the chemical diversity of aptamers is less than the diversity of protein recognition elements built of 20 amino acids. Chemical modification of nucleotides enlarges the potential of DNA/RNA aptamers. This review describes the latest achievements in a variety of approaches to aptamers selection with an extended genetic alphabet.

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KEY WORDS: aptamers, modified nucleotides, mod-SELEX

DOI: 10.1134/S0006297918100024

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