Selective aptamer-based control of intraneuronal signaling.

Cellular behavior is orchestrated by the complex interactions of a myriad of intracellular signal transduction pathways. To understand and investigate the role of individual components in such signaling networks, the availability of specific inhibitors is of paramount importance. We report the generation and validation of a novel variant of an RNA aptamer that selectively inhibits the mitogen-activated kinase pathway in neurons. We demonstrate that the aptamer retains function under intracellular conditions and that application of the aptamer through the patch-clamp pipette efficiently inhibits mitogen-activated kinase-dependent synaptic plasticity. This approach introduces synthetic aptamers as generic tools, readily applicable to inhibit different components of intraneuronal signaling networks with utmost specificity.

An aptamer to the MAP kinase insert region.

Targeting functional, non-catalytic domains of protein kinases or other proteins is an emerging field in chemical biology research. Non-ATP competitive kinase inhibitors allow for the investigation of active-site independent functions, e.g., the biological role of protein-protein interactions. These inhibitors also serve as a starting point for developing novel therapeutic strategies. However, the identification of such inhibitors by means of conventional low molecular weight compounds represents a great challenge in modern drug discovery. Employing the mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase Erk2, we show that RNA aptamers have the capacity to be a novel, promising class of protein kinase inhibitors that can be applied to target individual subdomains and block domain specific functions without affecting kinase activity per se.

Molecular mechanism for inhibition of g protein-coupled receptor kinase 2 by a selective RNA aptamer.

Cardiovascular homeostasis is maintained in part by the rapid desensitization of activated heptahelical receptors that have been phosphorylated by G protein-coupled receptor kinase 2 (GRK2). However, during chronic heart failure GRK2 is upregulated and believed to contribute to disease progression. We have determined crystallographic structures of GRK2 bound to an RNA aptamer that potently and selectively inhibits kinase activity. Key to the mechanism of inhibition is the positioning of an adenine nucleotide into the ATP-binding pocket and interactions with the basic αF-αG loop region of the GRK2 kinase domain. Constraints imposed on the RNA by the terminal stem of the aptamer also play a role. These results highlight how a high-affinity aptamer can be used to selectively trap a novel conformational state of a protein kinase.

Functional detection of proteins by caged aptamers.

While many diagnostic assay platforms enable the measurement of analytes with high sensitivity, most of them result in a disruption of the analyte's native structure and, thus, in loss of function. Consequently, the analyte can be used neither for further analytical assessment nor functional analysis. Herein we report the use of caged aptamers as templates during apta-PCR analysis of targets. Aptamers are short nucleic acids that fold into a well-defined three-dimensional structure in which they interact with target molecules with high affinity and specificity. Nucleic acid aptamers can also serve as templates for qPCR approaches and, thus, have been used as high affinity ligands to bind to target molecules and subsequently for quantification by qPCR, an assay format coined apta-PCR. Caged aptamers in turn refer to variants that bear one or more photolabile groups at strategic positions. The activity of caged aptamers can thus be turned on or off by light irradiation. The latter allows the mild elution of target-bound aptamers while the target's native structure and function remain intact. We demonstrate that this approach allows the quantitative and subsequently the functional assessment of analytes. Since caged aptamers can be generated emanating from virtually every available aptamer, the described approach can be generalized and adopted to any target-aptamer pair and, thus, have a broad applicability in proteomics and clinical diagnostics.

Plug and play with RNA.

Retooling RNA: RNA aptamers are high-affinity ligands that can be assembled with other structures to yield multivalent molecules. These properties have been addressed in two recent studies: One describes a GFP-like RNA reporter used to study the dynamics of endogenous RNA; the other study reports on an aptamer-templated assembly of multi-enzyme complexes in bacteria for the controlled production of secondary molecules (see picture).