Designer DNA nanostructures for therapeutics

Summary

The field of structural DNA nanotechnology applies the programmability of Watson-Crick base pairing to the construction of custom nanostructures that are prescribed by the sequence information encoded in DNA molecules. Precisely defined geometries, highly programmable molecular interactions, and outstanding biocompatibility make DNA nanostructures a new category of nanocarriers for drug delivery. Over the past decade, the potential of using DNA nanocarrier-based formulation for cancer therapy has been extensively explored with the successful implementation of various therapeutic strategies, both in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, DNA nanocarriers can be encoded with complex instructions via sequence design, enabling therapeutic functions to be executed in a programmed, automatic manner. In this review, we summarize recent advances and discuss the challenges and opportunities in designer DNA nanostructure-enabled therapeutics.