Structural stability of DNA origami nanostructures under application-specific conditions

Abstract

With the introduction of the DNA origami technique, it became possible to rapidly synthesize almost arbitrarily shaped molecular nanostructures at nearly stoichiometric yields. The technique furthermore provides absolute addressability in the sub-nm range, rendering DNA origami nanostructures highly attractive substrates for the controlled arrangement of functional species such as proteins, dyes, and nanoparticles. Consequently, DNAorigami nanostructures have found applications in numerous areas of fundamental and applied research, ranging from drug delivery to biosensing to plasmonics to inorganic materials synthesis. Since many of those applications rely on structurally intact, well-definedDNA origami shapes, the issue of DNA origami stability under numerous application-relevant environmental conditions has received increasing interest in the past few years. In this mini-review we discuss the structural stability, denaturation, and degradation of DNA origami nanostructures under different conditions relevant to the fields of biophysics and biochemistry, biomedicine, and materials science, and the methods to improve their stability for desired applications.

Self-Assembly of Organic Nanomaterials and Biomaterials: The Bottom-Up Approach for Functional Nanostructures Formation and Advanced Applications

“…The application of DNA nanotechnology is particularly interesting in the field of drug delivery and nanomedicine. Recent trends show, in fact, the possibility to develop molecular engineering strategies for the precise designer of devices (based on nucleic acid scaffolds) that are able to perform complex tasks such as the targeting cells (smart drug-delivery vehicles) and triggering the cellular actions/response in the biological environment (cell), or even whole living system [191][192][193][194].…”

“…Recently, a programming 20-30 nm (rectangular) DNA origami have been developed for loading and delivery of Doxorubicin drug by penetrating the ovarian cancer cells [194]. Cell penetrating investigations evidenced that the designed DNA origami are able to efficiently penetrate ovarian cancer cells and load the drug doxorubicin.…”

“…Although further improvement of the nanocarrier colloidal stability is needed. The designed DNA origami shows promising applications in anti-tumor drug delivery in vivo [194].…”

Enhancing Biocompatible Stability of DNA Nanostructures Using Dendritic Oligonucleotides and Brick Motifs

“…[2,7] Nevertheless, more recent literature highlights the importance of the structural stability of DNA-based materials under physiological conditions when using them in vitro and/or in vivo. [8][9][10][11] This is due to two main factors involved in degradation of DNA nanostructures upon exposure to biological conditions: i) denaturation caused by low divalent cation concentration (physiological salt concentration approximately 0.04-0.8 mm MgCl 2 ), and ii) digestion caused by the presence of nucleases. [8] Multiple strategies have been developed to chemically or physically prevent the DNA nanostructures from falling apart in cellular media (for example, 10 % FBS), [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] and in general, encapsulation of DNA nanostructures with different coating moieties prolongs the survival time the longest published.…”

DNA‐Based Biomaterials for Immunoengineering

“…With respect to DNA origami nanostructures, protein coatings may serve to modulate their conferred immune response. DNA origami nanostructures have observed improved structural integrity and function through electrostatically driven protein coatings . For example, when coated with proteins such as bovine serum albumin (BSA), the nanostructures displayed less degradation by DNAse1, increased cellular transfection, and attenuated immune responses of splenocytes …”