Selective recovery of target cells employing a bi-functional aptamer

Aptamers are single-stranded nucleic acids with high and specific affinity to a target molecule. Recently, target cell-binding aptamers are studied as molecular tools for the detection and the isolation of desired cells. Here, I developed a method for the selective recovery of target cells employing a bi-functional aptamer. As a model experiment, I constructed the bi-functional aptamer by fusing a resin-binding aptamer and a target cell-binding aptamer. The bi-functional aptamer enabled the selective recovery of the target cells simply by mixing of the cells with the bi-functional aptamer and the resin. This simple method would be applied for a variety of cell types and resins.