Table 2.

Summary of aptamer applications and their functions in cancer therapy.

Type	Name of Aptamer Drugs	Function in Cancer Therapy	Reference
Agonist & Antagonist	CD28Apt	Either reducing the T-cell tolerance by blocking the interaction with B7 or enhancing the vaccine-induced immune response	[94]
	OX40 aptamer	Stimulating the T cell proliferation and cytokine production	[70,95]
	PSMA-4-1BB aptamer	Promoting the survival and expansion of activated CD8+ T cells	[69]
	PEG-MP7	Inhibiting the PD-L1-mediated suppression of IL-2 secretion in T cells	[68]
	NX1838 aptamer	Binding to VEGF165 with high affinity and preventing blood vessel growth and arresting the progression	[98]
	Cot-pega oligobody	Inhibiting the Akt pathway that induces the cell survival, angiogenesis, differentiation, cell growth, proliferation	[99]
Aptamer-drug conjugates	A10-Plk1	Suppressing the expression of polo-like kinase 1 that pro-survival genes	[100]
	BAFF-R-STAT3 siRNA	Blocking the BAFF-mediated proliferation of B-cell malignancies and suppressing the transcription factor STAT3 to inhibit the cell cycle progression, angiogenesis and tumor cell evasion of immune system	[101]
	GL21.T-222	Inhibiting the receptor tyrosine kinases Axl and PDGFR β and reducing the level of miR-222 or miR-10b	[102]
	CD40-SMG1-shRNA chimera	Inhibiting SMG1 kinase that is essential for nonsense mRNA mediated decay initiation in tumor cells	[103]
	3WJ-EGFRapt/anti-miR-21	Inhibiting of tumor progression, invasion, and metastasis by suppressing of miR-21	[104]
	AS1411-Dox	Inhibiting of tumor cell proliferation by inducing G2/M arrest	[105]
	Sgc8c-Dox	Recognizing the protein tyrosine kinase 7 and delivering Dox to the target CCRF-CEM (T-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia) cells	[106]
	ApDCs	Recognizing target cancer cells and release the Fluorouracil in a photocontrollable manner	[108]
	MA3 Apt-Dox	Selectively delivering the cytotoxic agent doxorubicin to MUC1-positivie adenocarcinomas cancer cells	[111]
	ApDC	Delivering the Dox to CD38-positive m1ultiple myeloma tumor cells and intracellular release of a high drug payload under a pH-controlled mechanism	[112]
	ApS&Dox	Targeting nucleolin molecule and circumventing Dox resistance by cell cycle arrest in S phase, effectively increased cell uptake	[113]
	Poly-Aptamer-Drug	Targeting and killing leukemia cells due to enhanced binding affinity and cell internalization via multivalent effects	[114]
	aptNTrs	Targeting human T-cell acute lymphocytic leukemia with high payload of drugs	[115]
Aptamer-conjugated nano-vehicles	DAG-NX213-L	Inhibiting the VEGF-induced endothelial cell proliferation and vascular permeability increase and angiogenesis	[90]
	Aptamosome	Selectively delivering the drug to PSMA-positive prostate cancer cells by Dox-encapsulating liposome conjugated with aptamers	[81]
	TDO5-micelle	Efficient delivering the drug to target cancer cells by aptamer-micelle assembly with high sensitivity and specificity in flow channel system	[118]
	QD-Apt	Delivering Dox to the prostate cancer cells and imaging the cancer cells by quantum dot	[120]
	NP-Apt	Suppressing the metastatic cancer progression and inducing the apoptosis of cancer cells	[79]
	MUC-1 Origami-Dox-AuNRs	Chemotherapeutically and photothermally killing the MUC1-overexpressed multidrug resistant breast cancer cells	[126]