The use of high-affinity polyhistidine binders as masking probes for the selection of an NDM-1 specific aptamer

The emergence of carbapenemase-producing multi-drug resistant Enterobacteriaceae poses a dramatic, world-wide health risk. Limited treatment options and a lack of easy-to-use methods for the detection of infections with multi-drug resistant bacteria leave the health-care system with a fast-growing challenge. Aptamers are single stranded DNA or RNA molecules that bind to their targets with high affinity and specificity and can therefore serve as outstanding detection probes. However, an effective aptamer selection process is often hampered by non-specific binding. When selections are carried out against recombinant proteins, purification tags (e.g. polyhistidine) serve as attractive side targets, which may impede protein target binding. In this study, aptamer selection was carried out against N-terminally hexa-histidine tagged New Delhi metallo-ß-lactamase 1. After 14 selection rounds binding to polyhistidine was detected rather than to New Delhi metallo-ß-lactamase 1. Hence, the selection strategy was changed. As one aptamer candidate showed remarkable binding affinity to polyhistidine, it was used as a masking probe and selection was restarted from selection round 10. Finally, after three consecutive selection rounds, an aptamer with specific binding properties to New Delhi metallo-ß-lactamase 1 was identified. This aptamer may serve as a much-needed detection probe for New Delhi metallo-ß-lactamase 1 expressing Enterobacteriaceae.