Aptamer–Drug Conjugates

Western medicine often aims to specifically treat diseased tissues or organs. However, the majority of current therapeutics failed to do so owing to their limited selectivity and the consequent “off-target” side effects. Targeted therapy aims to enhance the selectivity of therapeutic effects and reduce adverse side effects. One approach toward this goal is to utilize disease-specific ligands to guide the delivery of less-specific therapeutics, such that the therapeutic effects can be guided specifically to diseased tissues or organs. Among these ligands, aptamers, also known as chemical antibodies, have emerged over the past decades as a novel class of targeting ligands that are capable of specific binding to disease biomarkers. Compared with other types of targeting ligands, aptamers have an array of unique advantageous features, which make them promising for developing aptamer–drug conjugates (ApDCs) for targeted therapy. In this Review, we will discuss ApDCs for targeted drug delivery in chemotherapy, gene therapy, immunotherapy, photodynamic therapy, and photothermal therapy, primarily of cancer.