Bispecific Aptamer-Drug Conjugates

As a leading provider of bispecific antibody and bispecific aptamer services, Creative Biolabs here focuses on providing custom bispecific aptamer-drug conjugates (BsApDCs) services to customers around the world. Relying on our advanced platform and decades of conjugation experience, we are confident in fulfilling your requirements for developing novel BsApDCs cost-effectively.

Background of BsApDCs

In recent years, aptamers have gradually emerged as new diagnostic and therapeutic agents with wide applications. In addition, aptamers serve as targeting ligands for drug delivery in the form of aptamer-drug conjugates (ApDCs). Typical ApDCs consist of three parts: aptamer, drug, and the linker between them. ApDCs play a crucial role in a variety of treatment modalities, such as immunotherapy, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and phototherapy. Furthermore, ApDCs are implicated in the treatment of various diseases, such as cancer and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. However, the delivery efficiency of a single aptamer is limited by the number of single receptors on the cell membrane and the stability of the aptamer, therefore, BsApDCs have emerged and attracted increasing attention.

Fig.1 ApDCs for chemotherapy. (Zhu, 2018)

What are BsApDCs?

In general, as with bispecific antibody-drug conjugates, BsApDCs are achieved by linking two different aptamers via an additional linker that is closely related to drug loading in bispecific drug delivery. Another form of BsApDC has been developed through two different aptamers with additional linker sequences, one of the aptamers was designed to specifically deliver drugs to tumor cells while the other aptamer contributed to facilitating cellular internalization. In simple terms, BsApDCs can enhance drug efficacy by enhancing cellular internalization and targeted delivery. Evidence shows that BsApDCs bind to target cells with enhanced internalization and better inhibitory activity, which further demonstrates the great potential of BsApDCs for targeted tumor therapy. It is worth noting that the BsApDCs may be a new strategy to improve the efficiency of drug delivery, providing a new direction for the formation of multi-target aptamer-drug conjugates in cancer therapy.

Fig.2 Enzymatic approach by polymerase chain reaction for BsApDC construction. (Sun, 2020)

Applications of BsApDCs

Currently, there are many examples of BsApDC as a drug carrier for targeted tumor therapy. For example, a BsApDCs were constructed by inserting doxorubicin as a conjugate into a bispecific drug carrier formed by sgc8c aptamer and sgd5a aptamer, which showed bispecific target cell binding, drug delivery, and cytotoxicity. Moreover, another bispecific cyclic aptamer (BisCAp) was developed as a drug carrier, which can recognize two distinct biomarkers on living cells, thereby enhancing their binding and internalization capabilities. Taken together, BsApDC provides new insights into cancer therapy.

What Can We Do for You?

Compared with bispecific antibodies, BsApDCs offer a programmable, simple and cost-effective solution. With an advanced technology platform and experienced experts, Creative Biolabs is committed to providing global clients with optimized BsApDCs development services to meet your unique project needs. Our drug-conjugated molecules including but not limited to proteins, peptides, antibodies, and small chemicals. If you'd like to know more about our BsApDCs custom services, please directly contact us or send an e-mail with your specific request.

References

1. Zhu G.; Chen X. Aptamer-based targeted therapy. Advanced drug delivery reviews. 2018, 134: 65-78.
2. Sun Y.; et al. Construction of bispecific aptamer-drug conjugate by a hybrid chemical and biological approach. Bioconjugate Chemistry. 2020, 31(5): 1289-94.