Aptamer-mediated drug delivery system for cardiovascular diseases

Aptamers are single-stranded nucleic acids or peptides that can be synthetically generated to bind specific target molecules and are beneficial for the development of macromolecular drugs. They are generated by iterative selection from a large random sequence pool. Aptamers uniquely bind to their target molecules via several distinct intermolecular and electrostatic interactions; hence they are highly useful in conferring target-specific binding capabilities in drug design. This facilitates simultaneous target-binding specificity and controlled delivery of therapeutic agents for the effective treatment of diseases. This chapter discusses several conventional drug delivery systems such as exosomes, extracellular vesicles, ultrasound, and microbubble-mediated systems, as well as opportunities for improvements via the incorporation of aptamers to treat cardiovascular diseases. The characteristics of surface-functionalized aptamer-mediated nanoparticle drug delivery systems as novel delivery systems to treat cardiovascular diseases are also discussed.