DNA Functional Materials Assembled from Branched DNA: Design, Synthesis, and Applications

Abstract

DNA is traditionally known as a central genetic biomolecule in living systems. From an alternative perspective, DNA is a versatile molecular building-block for the construction of functional materials, in particular biomaterials, due to its intrinsic biological attributes, molecular recognition capability, sequence programmability, and biocompatibility. The topologies of DNA building-blocks mainly include linear, circular, and branched types. Branched DNA recently has been extensively employed as a versatile building-block to synthesize new biomaterials, and an assortment of promising applications have been explored. In this review, we discuss the progress on DNA functional materials assembled from branched DNA. We first briefly introduce the background information on DNA molecules and sketch the development history of DNA functional materials constructed from branched DNA. In the second part, the synthetic strategies of branched DNA as building-blocks are categorized into base-pairing assembly and chemical bonding. In the third part, construction strategies for the branched DNA-based functional materials are comprehensively summarized including tile-mediated assembly, DNA origami, dynamic assembly, and hybrid assembly. In the fourth part, applications including diagnostics, protein engineering, drug and gene delivery, therapeutics, and cell engineering are demonstrated. In the end, an insight into the challenges and future perspectives is provided. We envision that branched DNA functional materials can not only enrich the DNA nanotechnology by ingenious design and synthesis but also promote the development of interdisciplinary fields in chemistry, biology, medicine, and engineering, ultimately addressing the growing demands on biological and medical-related applications in the real world.

Rationally Programming Nanomaterials with DNA for Biomedical Applications

“…Due to the high structural programmability, high biocompatibility, tailorable shape, and size, the emerging DNA nanostructure carriers have been widely explored for drug delivery and disease therapy. [18,151,163,176,177] As a template, the DNA origami alone could be used for anticancer drug delivery. For example, Ding and co-workers reported the doxorubicin (DOX) could be non-covalently attached to the triangle DNA origami nanostructures through intercalation.…”

DNA Manipulation and Single-Molecule Imaging

“…DNA, the genetic information carrier, has been playing wide roles as an attractive material for the construction of nanoscale structures [83][84][85]. Pioneering work by Paul Rothemund has significantly expanded the potential for designing and building arbitrarily shaped, complex, two-and three-dimensional nanostructures with DNA (DNA origami) [86].…”

Biosensors based on DNA logic gates

“…The interfaces, in most cases solid–liquid interfaces, provide anti‐interference for DNA logic operations through separation and elimination of invalid inputs and verbose outputs in solution, and thus introduce significant potential for enhancing logic operation complexity 31 . The most widely employed interfaces include the surfaces of metal or inorganic nanoparticles, 30 two‐dimensional layered nanocomposites, 32 electrodes, 31b DNA origami, 33 microfluidic channels, 34 and so on.…”