Construction of RNA–Quantum Dot Chimera for Nanoscale Resistive Biomemory Application

Abstract

RNA nanotechnology offer advantages to construct thermally and chemically stable nanoparticles with well-defined shape and structure. Here we report the development of an RNA-Qd (quantum dot) chimera for resistive biomolecular memory application. Each Qd holds two copies of the pRNA three-way junction (pRNA-3WJ) of bacteriophage phi29 DNA-packaging motor. The fixed quantity of two RNA per Qd was achieved by immobilizing pRNA-3WJ harboring Sephadex aptamer for resin binding. Two thiolated pRNA-3WJ serves as two feet of the chimera to stand on the gold plate. The RNA nanostructure served as both an insulator and a mediator to provide defined distance between Qd and gold. Immobilization of chimera nanoparticle was confirmed through scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). As revealed by scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS), the conjugated pRNA-3WJ-Qd chimera exhibited excellent electrical bi-stability signal for biomolecular memory function, demonstrating great potential for the development of resistive biomolecular memory and nanobio-inspired electronic device for information processing and computing.

Fabrication of Electrochemical-Based Bioelectronic Device and Biosensor Composed of Biomaterial-Nanomaterial Hybrid

“…Furthermore, those materials also have been introduced to develop the biologic gate. In conventional electronic field, logic gates have been developed to acts as performing component in electronic device for logical operation such as Boolean function using field-effect transistor (FET), metal-oxide-semiconductor fieldeffect transistor (MOSFET) (Lee et al 2015;Tomohiro et al 2004).…”

“…In recent years, Choi's group reported the RNA and semiconductor nanoparticle hybrid can be used to the resistive memory device application (Lee et al 2015). To construct the resistive memory device, the thermodynamically stable pRNA 3WJ from the phi29 DNA packaging motor was used and conjugated with quantum dot nanoparticle (CdSe-ZnS).…”

RNA nanoparticles harboring annexin A2 aptamer can target ovarian cancer for tumor-specific doxorubicin delivery

“…Nucleic acid based nanoparticles with variable three-dimensional folding 13–15 can be designed to have specific interaction with functional protein, RNA, even small chemicals including ions in the organism 16–18 . RNA/DNA hybrid nanoparticles have been utilized as multifunctional drug delivery carriers 19–21 .…”

Controllable self-assembly of RNA dendrimers

“…The pRNA-3WJ assembles from three pieces of RNA oligonucleotides, is unusually thermodynamically stable (T m of 59°C; ΔG° 37°C of −28 kcal/mol), is resistant to denaturation even in presence of 8 M urea, and remains intact at ultra-low concentrations in vivo 22,23,37 . We have functionalized the pRNA-3WJ with targeting, imaging and therapeutic modules, and the resulting RNA nanoparticles have been used for cancer targeting 22–24,38–40 and therapy 41,42 , as well as for resistive biomemory applications 43 . More recently, we solved the crystal structure of the pRNA-3WJ scaffold 44 , which has facilitated the designs of multifunctional RNA nanoparticles.…”