Designing anti-influenza aptamers: novel quantitative structure activity relationship approach gives insights into aptamer-virus interaction.

ABSTRACT: This study describes the development of aptamers as a therapy against influenza virus infection. Aptamers are oligonucleotides (like ssDNA or RNA) that are capable of binding to a variety of molecular targets with high affinity and specificity. We have studied the ssDNA aptamer BV02, which was designed to inhibit influenza infection by targeting the hemagglutinin viral protein, a protein that facilitates the first stage of the virus' infection. While testing other aptamers and during lead optimization, we realized that the dominant characteristics that determine the aptamer's binding to the influenza virus may not necessarily be sequence-specific, as with other known aptamers, but rather depend on general 2D structural motifs. We adopted QSAR (quantitative structure activity relationship)

SUBMITTER: Musafia B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4028238 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature