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  • Title: Development of a thermal-stable structure-switching cocaine-binding aptamer.
    Author: Shoara AA, Reinstein O, Borhani OA, Martin TR, Slavkovic S, Churcher ZR, Johnson PE.
    Journal: Biochimie; 2018 Feb; 145():137-144. PubMed ID: 28838608.
    Abstract:
    We have developed a new cocaine-binding aptamer variant that has a significantly higher melt temperature when bound to a ligand than the currently used sequence. Retained in this new construct is the ligand-induced structure-switching binding mechanism that is important in biosensing applications of the cocaine-binding aptamer. Isothermal titration calorimetry methods show that the binding affinity of this new sequence is slightly tighter than the existing cocaine-binding aptamer. The improved thermal performance, a Tm increase of 4 °C for the cocaine-bound aptamer and 9 °C for the quinine-bound aptamer, was achieved by optimizing the DNA sequence in stem 2 of the aptamer to have the highest stability based on the nearest neighbor thermodynamic parameters and confirmed by UV and fluorescence spectroscopy. The sequences in stem 1 and stem 3 were unchanged in order to retain the structure switching and ligand binding functions. The more favorable thermal stability characteristics of the OR3 aptamer should make it a useful construct for sensing applications employing the cocaine-binding aptamer system.
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