King Saud University

Md Ashrafuzzaman

Chih-Yuan Tseng

A lipid-binding drug for binding to a membrane-based or membrane lipid comprises at least one aptamer having a sequence selected from the group consisting of GGCGGCAAAAAAAAAA (SEQ ID NO: 1), GGCGGCAAAAAAAAAAA (SEQ ID NO: 2), GGCGGCAAAAAAAAAAAA (SEQ ID NO: 3), GGCGGCAAAAAAAAAAAAA (SEQ ID NO: 4), GGCGGCGGGGGGGGGG (SEQ ID NO: 5), GGCGGCGGGGGGGGGGG (SEQ ID NO: 6), GGCGGCGGGGGGGGGGG (SEQ ID NO: 7), GGCGGCGGGGGGGGGGG (SEQ ID NO: 8), CAAAAGGAGCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA (SEQ ID NO: 9) CAAAAGGAGCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA (SEQ ID NO: 10), CAAAAGGAGCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA (SEQ ID NO: 11), CAAAAGGAGCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA (SEQ ID NO: 12), CAAAAGGAGCGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG (SEQ ID NO: 13), CAAAAGGAGCGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG (SEQ ID NO: 14), CAAAAGGAGCGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG (SEQ ID NO: 15), and CAAAAGGAGCGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG (SEQ ID NO: 16).

Aptamers for binding to a membrane-based lipid

A method of designing aptamers includes building an aptamer by a seed-and-grow method optimizing screened coulomb interactions (SCI) and selecting aptamer length based on an aptamer target biological environment. Aptamers designed according to the method may comprise any DNA or RNA nucleotides. In particular, for example, aptamers may be designed according to the method to target lipids that may be found in membranes, such as liposomes or micelles. The lipids may be phosphatidylserine (PS) or phosphatidylcholine (PC).

Energy-based method for drug design

The method for direct detection of lipid binding agents in membrane includes dissolving a lipid in an organic solvent in a container; evaporating off the organic solvent to create a lipid film on the inside wall of the container; adding a buffer solution; adding a known volume of a membrane active agent to the buffer solution; incubating the solution in the dark for a period of time; removing the buffer solution from the container to provide a solution of sample A; washing the container with a buffer solution; adding an organic solvent while stirring the container to dissolve the lipid film to create a homogenous solution B; and measuring the absorbance of the samples A and B by absorption spectroscopy. The method may further include developing a universal probability function to test and quantify a membrane-based cytotoxicity of general drug candidates.

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Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Md Ashrafuzzaman