Aptamer and Riboswitches: A Novel Tool for the Need of New Antimicrobial Active Compounds

Antibiotics are a very used tool in the health system. However, the use and abuse of these have led to an increase in unwanted events including the rise of new multiresistant bacterial strains. Because of this reason, the generation of new antibiotics and strategies to combat multiresistant microorganisms is of vital importance and a permanent challenge. In recent years, the development of oligonucleotide-based technology appears as a powerful tool to face the need for new molecules with therapeutic antibacterial activity. These molecules (aptamers) are single-stranded short oligonucleotides (DNA or RNA) that bind different targets with high specificity and affinity and have shown to be greatly interesting for biomedical applications. Aptamers are characterized for having high permeability in tissues, being not immunogenic, being not rapidly degraded in vivo, being easily stored and transported, etc. In addition, these would not be substrates for antibiotic-degrading enzymes such as β-lactamases. These characteristics make aptamers and among them, riboswitches, excellent candidates for the development and exploration of new therapies and/or antibacterial treatments.