Screening and identification of DNA aptamers toward Schistosoma japonicum eggs via SELEX

• Published in: Scientific reports 2016-04, Vol.6 (1), p.24986-24986, Article 24986
• Main Authors: Long, Yuqian, Qin, Zhiqiang, Duan, Minlan, Li, Shizhu, Wu, Xiaoqiu, Lin, Wei, Li, Jianglin, Zhao, Zilong, Liu, Jing, Xiong, Dehui, Huang, Yi, Hu, Xiaoxiao, Yang, Chao, Ye, Mao, Tan, Weihong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 14; 14/19; 14/63; 631/92/147; 631/92/96; Animals; Antigens, Helminth - analysis; Aptamers; Aptamers, Nucleotide - isolation & purification; Aptamers, Nucleotide - metabolism; Drug delivery; Eggs; Humanities and Social Sciences; Liver; Mass Screening; Morbidity; multidisciplinary; Schistosoma japonicum - chemistry; Schistosoma japonicum - growth & development; Schistosomiasis; Science; SELEX Aptamer Technique; Sensitivity and Specificity; Zygote - chemistry
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/srep24986

Schistosomiasis is a major parasitic disease caused by blood flukes of the genus Schistosoma. Several million people all over the world are estimated to suffer from severe morbidity as a consequence of schistosomiasis. The worm’s eggs, which cause the symptoms of schistosomiasis, are generally used to diagnose the disease. In this study, we employed egg-based systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (egg-SELEX) and identified a panel of ssDNA aptamers specifically binding to eggs derived from S. japonicum . Among these, two aptamers LC6 and LC15 exhibited strong binding to and specific recognition of S. japonicum eggs, but not eggs from Fasciolopsis buski , Enterobius , Ascaris or Clonorchis sinensis . Furthermore, tissue imaging results revealed that LC15 could recognize S. japonicum eggs laid in liver tissues with a detection ratio of 80.5%. Collectively, therefore, we obtained useful aptamers specifically recognizing S. japonicum eggs, which will facilitate the development of an effective tool for both schistosomiasis diagnosis and drug delivery.