High-affinity five/six-letter DNA aptamers with superior specificity enabling the detection of dengue NS1 protein variants beyond the serotype identification.

ABSTRACT: Genetic alphabet expansion of DNA by introducing unnatural bases (UBs), as a fifth letter, dramatically augments the affinities of DNA aptamers that bind to target proteins. To determine whether UB-containing DNA (UB-DNA) aptamers obtained by affinity selection could spontaneously achieve high specificity, we have generated a series of UB-DNA aptamers (KD: 27-182 pM) targeting each of four dengue non-structural protein 1 (DEN-NS1) serotypes. The specificity of each aptamer is remarkably high, and the aptamers can recognize the subtle variants of DEN-NS1 with at least 96.9% amino acid sequence identity, beyond the capability of serotype identification (69-80% sequence identities). Our UB-DNA aptamers specifically identified two major variants of dengue serotype 1 with 10-amino acid differen

SUBMITTER: Matsunaga KI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8599795 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature