Abstract 2195 Directed Evolution of Multivalent 2'-Fluoro RNA Aptamers Against Protein Targets

Carbohydrate binding proteins (CBPs) are pervasive in nature and play crucial roles across organisms. Additionally, the complexity and diversity of their substrates, carbohydrates, allow for an expansive range of interactions and functions within living systems. Thus, they are of high interest as targets in medicine and biology. To form the high-affinity interactions CBPs have with carbohydrates, multivalent interactions are often necessary where one CBP will binding several sugars or glycans. The Krauss lab has pioneered an adaptation of SELEX entitled SELection with Modified Aptamers (SELMA), to evolve multivalent sugar clusters scaffolded by DNA and RNA to optimally bind CBPs. In this most recent approach, we have incorporated further nucleotide modifications into SELMA to impart greater serum stability to the selection products. Here, we present progress in selections of multivalent carbohydrate binders for several targets using several different oligosaccharides. This work has been funded by R01AI090745 and R01GM151492 as well as the NSF graduate research fellowship program.