Prevention of Serpin Misfolding by RNA Aptamers

Owing to their structural flexibility, most serpins inhibit the cognate proteases in a fast and specific manner and also are susceptible to pathogenic misfolding. In this issue of Cell Chemical Biology , Madsen et al. (2016) report on the selection and characterization of an RNA aptamer that stabilizes α 1 -antichymotrypsin L55P mutant without interfering with the protease inhibitory activity.