Selection of Aptamers Against Whole Living Cells: From Cell-SELEX to Identification of Biomarkers.

Aptamer selection protocols, named cell-SELEX, have been developed to target trans-membrane proteins using whole living cells as target. This technique presents several advantages. (1) It does not necessitate the use of purified proteins. (2) Aptamers are selected against membrane proteins in their native conformation. (3) Cell-SELEX can be performed to identify aptamers against biomarkers differentially expressed between different cell lines without prior knowledge of the targets. (4) Aptamers identified by cell-SELEX can be further used to purify their targets and to identify new biomarkers. Here, we provide a protocol of cell-SELEX including the preparation of an oligonucleotide library, next-generation sequencing and radioactive binding assays. Furthermore, we also provide a protocol to purify and identify the target of these aptamers. These protocols could be useful for the discovery of lead therapeutic compounds and diagnostic cell-surface biomarkers.