HIGH-AFFINITY LIGANDS FROM IN-VITRO SELECTION - COMPLEX TARGETS

Human red blood cell membranes were used as a model system to determin e if the systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SE LEX) methodology, an in vitro protocol for isolating high-affinity oli gonucleotides that bind specifically to virtually any single protein, could be used with a complex mixture of potential targets, Ligands to multiple targets were generated simultaneously during the selection pr ocess, and the binding affinities of these ligands for their targets a re comparable to those found in similar experiments against pure targe ts, A secondary selection scheme, deconvolution-SELEX, facilitates rap id isolation of the ligands to targets of special interest within the mixture, SELEX provides high-affinity compounds for multiple targets i n a mixture and might allow a means for dissecting complex biological systems.