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Aptamers against viral hepatitis: from rational design to practical application

  • Published:
Virologica Sinica

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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, China

    Hui Feng & Kang-hong Hu

  2. Institute of Molecular and Cellular Anatomy, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, D-93053, Germany

    Kang-hong Hu

Authors
  1. Hui Feng
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  2. Kang-hong Hu
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Correspondence to Kang-hong Hu.

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Foundation item: Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (0802021SA1)

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Feng, H., Hu, Kh. Aptamers against viral hepatitis: from rational design to practical application. Virol. Sin. 23, 315–320 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12250-008-2979-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12250-008-2979-y

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