SARS-CoV-2 parçacığına karşı 2-FY RNA aptamerlerinin seçilimi

Corona Virus Disease – 19 (COVID-19) is caused by infection of SARS-CoV-2 from other humans and animals, which results in clinical symptoms like fever, cough, breathing difficulties headache, muscle pain, and diarrhea. Further symptoms can be life threatening clinical conditions such as pneumonia, cardiovascular and rarely neurological complexities. According to studies, estimated fatality rate of the disease is about 4 %; reported cases-fatality rate is about 2.3 %. Early diagnosis is crucial to prevent further fatal symptoms. Although PCR tests are widely used, their success rate is about 60% and getting results of the test can take hours to days. Thus, more effective, and faster diagnostic tool is required. Aptamers are small nucleic acids that can be selected in vitro bind to their cognate targets with a high specificity and affinity. They can have either ssDNA or RNA backbones and they fold naturally into their unique three-dimensional shape. Aptamers can also be further modified to enhance their structural stability without any loss of affinity. These properties make them useful for both therapeutic and diagnosis applications. In this study, we successfully generated SARS-CoV-2 binding aptamers that will be further optimized for COVID-19 diagnosis.