ABSTRACT
Aptamers are oligonucleotides (DNA or RNA molecules) which are
able to bind selectively to low-molecular-weight molecules or to
macromolecules such as proteins. The interest in aptamers as lig-
ands is related to their ease of preparation by an evolutionary selec-
tion procedure that eliminates the need for structural design of the
ligand sites. Selection of the aptamers for the specific target is based
on the SELEX (systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrich-
ment) procedure.
