Adaptive SELEX Strategies Against HCV Core Protein Lead to the Same Aptamer

Abstract

Herein, we demonstrate the accuracy of aptamer selection among different SELEX procedures, in different labs, using different variations of the same target and slightly different aptamer initial libraries. In our lab, we have selected DNA aptamers against HCV core protein by applying two consecutive selection approaches (in which two different variations of the target were used): using lysates of E. coli M15 bacteria expressing full-length HCV core protein (genotype 1a) as well as mature HCV core recombinant protein (genotype 1b). Three aptamers were finally identified: AptHCV14F, AptHCV4.2F and AptHCV7.2R, from which AptHCV14F resulted to be identical (within the variable region) to the previously reported (in this journal) aptamer AptD-1312. Functionality of these aptamers were deeply investigated by SPR and ELONA, resulting as high affinity binders of HCV core protein suitable for the development of new generation tools for hepatitis c virus detection and screening.