Abstract: Objective · To study the ability of aptamer sgc8 to recognize different bone marrow cells and evaluate its diagnostic value for acute leukemia (AL). Methods · 5-Carboxyfluorescein-labeled aptamer sgc8 and its control random library chain (Lib) were used to examine 83 clinical bone marrow samples by flow cytometry, and the difference between sgc8 and Lib of the positive percentages of each cell population was analyzed. Kruskal-Wallis test was used for statistical analysis. Results · In AL samples, sgc8 has a specific ability to recognize tumor cells in most of the acute T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) samples, and the ability of sgc8 to recognize tumor cells of various AML subtypes is different while there is no difference for the ability to recognize tumor cells of T-ALL subtypes. But sgc8 doesn’t show obvious recognition ability in acute B-cell lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) samples. In normal bone marrow samples, sgc8 can specifically recognize the myeloid blast cellsbut not early B cells and other mature cell populations. Conclusion · The aptamer sgc8 has specific recognition ability in AML, T-ALL and normal bone marrow samples, and may have different diagnostic values for various AML subtypes, but it does not significantly recognize cells of B-ALL samples.

Key words: aptamer, sgc8, acute leukemia, flow cytometry, diagnosis