Aptamers Against Viral Hepatitis: from Rational Design to Practical Application / 中国病毒学·英文版

ABSTRACT

Aptamers are short nucleic acids or peptides that strongly bind to a protein of interest and functionally inhibit a given target protein at the intracellular level. Besides high affinity and specificity, aptamers have several advantages over traditional antibodies. Hence, they have been broadly selected to develop antiviral agents for therapeutic applications against hepatitis B and C viruses (HBV, HCV). This review provides a summary of in vitro selection and characterization of aptamers against viral hepatitis, which is of practical significance in drug discovery.