Selective Delivery to Cardiac Muscle Cells Using Cell-Specific Aptamers

In vivo SELEX is an advanced adaptation of Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential Enrichment (SELEX) that allows the development of aptamers capable of recognizing targets directly within their natural microenvironment. While this methodology ensures a higher translation potential for the selected aptamer, it does not select for aptamers that recognize specific cell types within a tissue. Such aptamers could potentially improve the development of drugs for several diseases, including neuromuscular disorders, by targeting solely the proteins involved in their pathogenesis. Here, we describe our attempt to utilize in vivo SELEX with a modification in the methodology that drives the selection of intravenously injected aptamers towards a specific cell type of interest. Our data suggest that the incorporation of a cell enrichment step can direct the in vivo localization of RNA aptamers into cardiomyocytes, the cardiac muscle cells, more readily over other cardiac cells. Given the crucial role of cardiomyocytes in the disease pathology in DMD cardiomyopathy and therapy, these aptamers hold great potential as drug delivery vehicles with cardiomyocyte selectivity.