A new paradigm for artesunate anticancer function:considerably enhancing the cytotoxicity via conjugating artesunate with aptamer

Dear Editor,Artemisinin and its derivatives(AIDs)have recently been widely applied in cancer therapy as promising therapeutic agents owing to its hypotoxicity and special bioactivation pathways.Though numerous strategies have been established to improve the potency of AIDs,they are still relatively inefficacious against cancers,especially as a monotherapy.^(1)It is thus essential to develop novel approaches to considerably enhance their anticancer efficacy.We hypothesized that aptamers with specific recognition,high-affinity binding,and receptor-mediated internalization would promote the accumulation of AIDs inside the target cells and lead to death of the target cancer cells.^(2)