Photoregulation of thrombin aptamer activity using Bhc caging strategy.

Thrombin aptamer was attempted to cage with Bhc (6-bromo-7-hydroxycoumarin-4-ylmethyl) group for controlling its specific affinity to target molecular through photolysis. By multiple-caging strategy, aptamer could be rendered biologically inert and partially restored with subsequently illumination. This provides a convenient method for photoregulating aptamer activity with exact spatiotemporal resolution.