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    Arjun Reddy

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    Abstract

    Uploaded by

    Arjun Reddy
    8 views3 pages

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    © © All Rights Reserved

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    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    8 views3 pages

    Abstract

    Uploaded by

    Arjun Reddy

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 3

    Category: Advanced materials and nanotechnology applications

    Advances in the programmable self-assembly of

    DNA hydrogel used for drug delivery

    Gary Q. Yanga* Weibin Caib, Yujun Wangc

    a
    College of Bioscience and Bioengineering, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang,

    Jiangxi, 330045, P. R. China.

    b
    School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, China University of Mining and

    Technology, Beijing 100083, P. R. China.

    c
    Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, P. R. China.

    *
    *Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
    Abstract

    Cancer is the deadliest disease for human beings and every year it may cause millions of deaths

    globally. Traditional small-molecule drug administration often requires frequent administration

    or high drug dosage to realize therapeutic efficacy due to nonspecific targeting. It often incurs

    systemic adverse reaction, therefore lowering overall effects and patient compliance. The

    emergence of immunotherapy and gene therapy, which involves functional biomolecules of

    DNA, RNA and proteins, has presented new challenges for in vivo drug delivery. Naked

    nucleic acids and proteins have short serum half-lives because of their susceptibility to

    enzymatic degradation, and cell transfection efficiency is rather low. In addition, the biological

    activity of protein can be readily damaged during carrier encapsulation. Therefore, it is

    essential to develop active and effective carriers for the controllable delivery of small-molecule

    and biomolecule drugs. Researchers have developed numerous targeted drug delivery systems

    (DDSs) due to the rapid progress of drug vectors including nanoparticles, polymers and

    liposomes, but these synthetic materials have poor degradability and low biocompatibility.

    DNA hydrogels are comprised of hydrophilic polymeric networks of crosslinked DNA chains.

    For their properties of good degradability and high biocompatibility in addition to porosity,

    sequence programmability, tunable mechanical properties, controlled phase transformation and

    simple preparation, extensive researches have been performed to construct DDS with DNA

    hydrogels via programmable DNA-aid self-assembly for targeted drug release. To figure out

    1
    the advancement trend of the self-assembly techniques and keep pace with its recent rapid

    advancements, it is essential to provide an overview of its past and recent progress. In the

    review article, we first present the techniques researchers used to construct various hydrogels

    made of solely DNA strands via programmable DNA-aided self-assembly. Then we present the

    techniques that researchers used to assemble MFs with one or more additional type of

    construction material, e.g., inorganic nanoparticle or polymers (including RNA, protein, etc.),

    in addition to DNA strands for the purpose of endowing the DDS with improved or additional

    properties/functions (e.g., designability, programmability, addressability, tunability and binding

    ability, reversibility of assembly, transfection, multiple payload loading, drug-loading capacity,

    cell internalization, biosafety, immunocompatibility, nuclease-resistant stability, stimuli-

    responsibility, therapeutic efficacy, spatio-temporal controlled delivery, cancer dual/multiple

    targeting, etc.). Here the additional construction materials may also classified into two

    categories. The first one is purely used for construction purposes. The other one have

    additional functions, e.g., tumor cell-targeting, stimuli-response, or themselves being drugs.

    From the advancing trend of DNA hydrogel self-assembly nanotechniques, we anticipate that in

    the future researchers will combine more materials with DNA strands to assemble more

    complex and powerful DNA hydrogels and incorporate more functional components to endow

    the DDS with improved or additional properties/functions, contributing to cancer prevention.

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