Facile construction of a DNA tetrahedron in unconventional ladder-like arrangements at room temperature. Issue 3 (21st January 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Dai, Ziwen; Leung, Hoi Man; Gao, Qi; Wang, Fei; Wong, Sze Wing; Liu, Ling Sum; Au, Yu Ju; Lai, King Wai Chiu; Lo, Pik Kwan
• Is Part Of: Nanoscale advances. Volume 1:Issue 3(2019)
• Page Start: 1240
• Page End: 1248
• Publication Date: 2019-01-21
• Subjects: 620.5
• DOI: 10.1039/c8na00323h
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2516-0230

Abstract

Abstract : An isothermal assembly of DNA tetrahedron at room temperature in a quantitative yield. Abstract : A DNA tetrahedron as the most classical and simplest three-dimensional DNA nanostructure has been widely utilized in biomedicine and biosensing. However, the existing assembly approaches usually require harsh thermal annealing conditions, involve the formation of unwanted by-products, and have poor size control. Herein, a facile strategy to fabricate a discrete DNA tetrahedron as a single, thermodynamically stable product in a quantitative yield at room temperature is reported. This system does not require a DNA trigger or thermal annealing treatment to initiate self-assembly. This DNA tetrahedron was made of three chemically ligated triangular-shaped DNAs in unconventional ladder-like arrangements, with measured heights of ∼4.16 ± 0.04 nm, showing extra protections for enzymatic degradation in biological environment. They show substantial cellular uptake in different cell lines via temperature, energy-dependent and clathrin-mediated endocytosis pathways. These characteristics allow our DNA tetrahedron to be used as vehicles for the delivery of very small and temperature-sensitive cargos. This novel assembly strategy developed for DNA tetrahedra could potentially be extended to other highly complex polyhedra; this indicated its generalizability.