Discussion
The term SIRT1 is abbreviation of sirtuin 1 or actually silent information regulation 2 homolog indicating that it is homologous to the Sirtuin 2 protein found in S. cerevisiae. Over the past decade, an intensive research observations support SIRT1 being both an oncogene and a tumour suppressor, depending on the cancer etiology and type of tissue. To answer the question "How can sirtuins function as both oncogenes and tumour suppressors?" we describes in this study the isolation and identification of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) aptamers against SIRT1 using the modified systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment methodology (SELEX).
The SELEX methodology is based on the idea of following an evolutionary process of selection, partition and amplification rounds to generate nucleic acids as therapeutic reagents. Since DNA molecules adopt stable and intricately folded three dimensional shapes, they are capable of providing a scaffold for the interaction with functional side groups of a ligand. The selected circular aptamers against sirtuin1 should be helpful for understanding the characterisation of the interactions between selected aptamers and SIRT1 in vitro in a range of cancer cell lines.
The benefits of circular aptamers may lie in the development of aptamer therapeutics for diseases that require simultaneous binding of two or more targets, such as cancer.