According to scientists at the University of Missouri, specialized nucleic acid-based nanostructures could target cancer cells avoiding normal cells. They observed, aptamers or nucleic acid ligands that carries smaller therapeutic molecules, can be trained to target certain molecules with high affinity and selectivity for recognizing specific diseased cells.

By loading aptamers with large, fluorescent RNAs generating nucleic-acid nanostructures, it is seen that only malignant cells lighten by the aptamer thus structures got correctly bonded with their targets. The study is published in the journal Nature Communications.