Figure 1.

Schematic representation of the secondary structure of the L-selectin targeting aptamers. (a) Structure of the monomeric aptamers LD201* and mΔ1, as predicted by the mfold software for nucleic acid folding prediction [64]. The blue box in LD201* sequence represents the nucleotides removed in the truncated mΔ1 analogue (G3-C8 and G33-C34); (b) structure of the mΔ1 dimer in which two aptamer units are linked with poly(dA) linkers of different length. Figures were adapted from Riese et al. [61] with permission.