Mirror Image Oligo microarrays- Aptamer Microarrays

Aptamers are oligonucleic acid or peptide molecules that bind a specific target molecule. Aptamers are specific RNA or DNA oligonucleotides or proteins which can adopt a vast number of three dimensional shapes. Due to this property, aptamers can be produced to bind tightly to a specific molecular target. Because an extraordinary diversity of molecular shapes exist within the universe of all possible nucleotide sequences, aptamers may be obtained for a wide array of molecular targets, including most proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleotides, other small molecules or complex structures such as viruses, aptamers technique is a powerful tool in drug discovery and development

The Noxxon pharma provides in-vivo studies using Spiegelmers

Spiegelmers are mirror-image, high-affinity oligonucleotide
ligands composed of L-ribose or L-2
-deoxyribose units. The
chiral inversion results in high stability in plasma compared with
natural D-oligonucleotide ligands and high resistance to enzymatic degradation comparedwith D-oligonucleotides.

they so can be used for clinical diagnostics and detection of foreign proteins upon introduction of a target, the aptamer folds to bind the protein. Pathogen sensing aptamer-based microarray chips can be envisioned for rapid pathogen identification and characterization. Using either reagentless electrochemical or optical readout, the aptamer-based microarray chip could be readily employed for multiplex detection of targeted pathogens.