Functional Xeno Nucleic Acids for Biomedical Application

Abstract

Functional nucleic acids(FNAs) refer to a type of oligonucleotides with functions over the traditional genetic roles of nucleic acids, which have been widely applied in screening, sensing and imaging fields. However, the potential application of FNAs in biomedical field is still restricted by the unsatisfactory stability, biocompatibility, biodistribution and immunity of natural nucleic acids(DNA/RNA). Xeno nucleic acids(XNAs) are a kind of nucleic acid analogues with chemically modified sugar groups that possess improved biological properties, including improved biological stability, increased binding affinity, reduced immune responses, and enhanced cell penetration or tissue specificity. In the last two decades, scientists have made great progress in the research of functional xeno nucleic acids, which makes it an emerging attractive biomedical application material. In this review, we summarized the design of functional xeno nucleic acids and their applications in the biomedical field.

Expanding the Horizon of the Xeno Nucleic Acid Space: Threose Nucleic Acids with Increased Information Storage

“…Progress has been made in the synthesis of unnatural nucleotide building blocks and in polymerase engineering, enabling the enzymatic generation of artificial nucleic acids. However, the vast majority of enzymatically prepared artificial nucleic acids typically only involve a chemical alteration in one part of their tripartite structure, composed of the phosphodiester backbone, a sugar moiety, and a nucleobase. , …”

“…However, the vast majority of enzymatically prepared artificial nucleic acids typically only involve a chemical alteration in one part of their tripartite structure, composed of the phosphodiester backbone, a sugar moiety, and a nucleobase. 9,14 One prominent sugar-modified nucleic acid that has been thoroughly studied with a particular focus on additional modifications to its xeno nucleic acid (XNA) structure, encompassing alterations in the phosphodiester backbone or the nucleobase moiety, is threofuranosyl-based nucleic acid (TNA). 15−18 TNA was first proposed as a progenitor of RNA by Eschenmoser.…”

Artificial genetic polymers against human pathologies

“…A deep and comprehensive analysis of new classes of nucleic acids was undertaken by Anosova et al [1], who suggested the possibility of storing some of the cell's genetic information on more inert carriers than natural nucleic acids. Since then, a number of excellent reviews have appeared [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9], alongside some especially exciting ones devoted to the prospects of creating orthogonal replication competent systems or xeno-lives [10][11][12][13] which include completely different two-base strands with dynamic covalent interactions between boronic acids (BAs) and catechols (CAs) as synthetic nucleobase analogs [14].…”