Development of a DNA Aptamer against Multidrug-Resistant Hepatocellular Carcinoma for <i>In Vivo</i> Imaging
Lin Zhang, Lingli Zhou, Hui Zhang, Yibin Zhang, Ling Li, Tiantian Xie, Yinglei Chen, Xiaodong Li, Neng Ling, Jing Dai, Xing Sun, Jing Liu, Jinfeng Zhao, Tianhuan Peng, Mao Ye
Abstract
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a type of cancer that has high rates of recurrence and mortality. One of the most important factors that lead to treatment failure of HCC is the acquisition of multidrug resistance (MDR). Development of specific ligands for multidrug-resistant HCC will provide useful molecular tools for precise diagnosis and targeted theranostics. Herein, a multidrug-resistant HCC cell (HepG2/MDR)-specific aptamer was developed through Cell-SELEX (systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment) technology. With dissociation constants lying in the nanomolar range, the molecularly designed PS-ZL-7c aptamer showed great selectivity to drug-resistant cancer cells. The in vivo imaging results illustrated that the PS-ZL-7c specifically accumulated in the drug-resistant tumors but not in drug-sensitive tumors and normal tissues, indicating that the PS-ZL-7c aptamer possessed excellent potential as a targeting ligand for precise diagnosis and target theranostics of multidrug-resistant HCC.