Aptamer-drug conjugates: A new frontier in targeted cancer therapy

Targeted cancer therapies strive to eliminate cancer cells while minimizing harm to healthy tissues. Aptamer-drug conjugate is one of the attractive alternatives in this field. ApDCs are a class of agents which utilize the high specificity of aptamers (a single-stranded DNA or RNA oligonucleotide with a high affinity for a target molecule) combined with the therapeutic potential of cytotoxic drugs. It results in the selective drug delivery into neoplastic cells. This review provides an overview of the recent development of new strategies utilizing ApDCs as next generation targeted cancer therapeutics (aiming to obtain improved therapeutic responses and to minimize off-target toxicities), which represent the main power over classical chemotherapeutics. Subsequent studies will seek to optimize the design of ApDCs and broaden their therapeutic use beyond cancer therapy. With the progress of research, ApDCs are predicted to have a greater role for the treatment of cancer in the future.