Nucleic Acid Aptamers as Potential Therapeutic and Diagnostic Agents for Lymphoma

Lymphomas are cancers that arise from white blood cells and usually present as solid tumors. Treatment of lymphoma often involves chemotherapy, and can also include radiotherapy and/or bone marrow transplantation. There is an un-questioned need for more effective therapies and diagnostic tool for lymphoma. Aptamers are single stranded DNA or RNA oligonucleotides whose three-dimensional structures are dictated by their sequences. The immense diversity in function and structure of nucleic acids enable numerous aptamers to be generated through an iterative in vitro selection technique known as Systematic Evolution of Ligands by EXponential enrichment (SELEX). Aptamers have several biochemical properties that make them attractive tools for use as potential diagnostic and pharmacologic agents. Isolated aptamers may directly inhibit the function of target proteins, or they can also be formulated for use as delivery agents for other therapeutic or imaging cargoes. More complex aptamer identification methods, using whole cancer cells (Cell-SELEX), may identify novel targets and aptamers to affect them. This review focuses on recent advances in the use of nucleic acid aptamers as diagnostic and therapeutic agents and as targeted delivery carriers that are relevant to lymphoma. Some representative examples are also discussed.