Using DNA nanotechnology to produce a drug delivery system

Abstract

Drug delivery to cancer cells in chemotherapy is one of the most advanced research topics. The effectiveness of the current cancer treatment drugs is limited because they are not capable of distinguishing between cancer cells and normal cells so that they kill not only cancer cells but also normal ones. To overcome this disadvantage by profiting from the differences in physical and chemical properties between cancer and normal cells, nanoparticles (NPs) delivering a drug are designed in a specific manner such that they can distinguish the cancer cells from the normal ones and are targeted only to the cancer cells. Currently, there are various drug delivery systems with many advantages, but sharing some common disadvantages such as difficulty with controlling the size, low encapsulation capacity and low stability. With the development and success of DNA nanotechnology, DNA strands are used to create effective drug delivery NPs with precisely controlled size and structure, safety and high stability. This article presents our study on drug encapsulation in DNA nanostructure which loaded docetaxel and curcumin in a desire to create a new and effective drug delivery system with high biological compatibility.

Recent Advances in DNA Nanotechnology for Plasmonic Biosensor Construction

“…Among these, DNA nanotechnology has received the most attention from researchers interested in the material rather than genetic characteristics of DNA [ 9 , 10 ]. DNA nanotechnology has brought forth a new paradigm for DNA research, one that employs the genetic functionality of DNA for engineering applications in biosensors [ 11 , 12 ], nanoarchitecture [ 13 , 14 ], drug delivery [ 15 , 16 ], and computations [ 17 , 18 ]. This integrated approach has resulted in the development of a tremendous line of products, which would have been impossible with conventional nucleic acid research or nanobiotechnology alone.…”