Systematic Review on current research in application and binding mechanism of DNA aptamer-ligand complexes

A systematic review on the current research (by the end of November 2015)of DNA aptamer- ligand binding complex studies was done by first searching peer reviewed journal articles related to this topic. A search in the Web of Science database was done using the key words "DNA aptamer" AND ("binding" OR "bound") AND "mechanism*". This search yielded a total of 78 articles. 8 of these articles were review papers so they were excluded. Rest of the 70 papers were used and their abstracts were read. Articles that focused on RNA aptamers, aptamer synthesis and use of aptamers in other research areas and duplicated were excluded. After doing such selection, 35 papers were left. The material and methods section of all these 35 papers was read to determine the ligands, purpose of study and type of techniques used. Many studies used more than one technique in the experiment but only those techniques that were utilized to study or apply aptamer-ligand interactions were recorded. In this way the current research on a DNA aptamer- ligand was analysed based on the following factors · Type of ligands used · Purpose of studying DNA aptamer-ligand binding - Types of techniques used in studies Systematic Review on current research in application and binding mechanism of DNA aptamer-ligand complexes