Engineering polymeric aptamers for selective cytotoxicity.

Chemotherapy strategies thus far reported can result in both side effects and drug resistance. To address both of these issues at the cellular level, we report a molecular engineering strategy, which employs polymeric aptamers to induce selective cytotoxicity inside target cells. The polymeric aptamers, composed of both multiple cell-based aptamers and a high ratio of dye-labeled short DNA, exploit the target recognition capability of the aptamer, enhanced cell internalization via multivalent effects, and cellular disruption by the polymeric conjugate. Importantly, the polymer backbone built into the conjugate is cytotoxic only inside cells. As a result, selective cytotoxicity is achieved equally in both normal cancer cells and drug-resistant cells. Control assays have confirmed the nontoxicity of the aptamer itself, but they have also shown that the physical properties of the polymer backbone contribute to target cell cytotoxicity. Therefore, our approach may shed new light on drug design and drug delivery.