Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

TESTING DNA APTAMERS FOR TUMOR MARKERS ERBB2, MUC1 AND EPCAMAS ALTERNATIVES OF MONOCLONAL ANTIBODIES IN STANDARD METHODS OF PROTEIN DETECTION

Yulia Evgenyevna Kravchenko, Stepan Petrovich Chumakov and Elena Ivanovna Frolova

Abstract

Aptamers represent a special class of compounds with a set of unique properties. They have advantages of both low molecular weight agents and agents of protein nature. For example, aptamers have affinity and specificity that are comparable to those of monoclonal antibodies. At the same time, due to their small size, aptamers show high penetrating ability, and do not have immunogenicity, which is typical of low molecular weight substances. We tested DNA aptamers that are specific to known tumor markers ErbB2, MUC1 and EpCAM in samples of breast cancer cell lines by the method of Western blotting analysis, which had positive results, indicating the possibility of using them instead of monoclonal antibodies for detecting proteins in diagnostics and treating oncology tumors, including highly aggressive forms of breast cancer.