Aptamers: From Structure to Applications

Dear Colleagues,

The pace of RNA and DNA aptamer development continues to increase each year as more scientists become aware of them and we become more proficient in the methods to generate them. While a variety of novel and rapid selection techniques have been developed in recent years, the relationship between the structures and functions of aptamers should be explored in more depth. Structural studies using molecular dynamics (MD), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), X-ray crystallography, and ab initio (quantum mechanics) methods can provide useful information regarding the structural and binding effects of atomic substitutions (e.g., boron, sulphur, fluorine, O-methyl), formation of chimeras or particles, incorporation of unnatural or modified DNA bases, or the role of certain structure motifs, such as G-quadruplexes. This Special Issue aims to review the methods and results of past structural studies of aptamers and discuss how structures affect aptamer binding and function, as well as provide new structure–function studies.

Dr. David E. Volk
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• aptamer
• structure
• NMR
• X-ray crystallography
• function
• ab initio