Nucleic Acid Aptamers in Nanotechnology

Abstract

Nucleic Acid (NA) aptamers are oligonucleotides. They are unique due to their secondary and tertiary structure; namely, the secondary structure defines the tertiary one by means of affinity and specificity. Our review is devoted only to DNA and RNA aptamers, since the majority of achievements in this direction were obtained with their application. NA aptamers can be used as macromolecular devices and consist of short single-stranded molecules, which adopt unique three-dimensional structures due to the interaction of complementary parts of the chain and stacking interactions. The review is devoted to the recent nanotechnological advances in NA aptamers application.