Scientists have taken a step towards having the ability to use biological nanostructures to deliver drugs to diseased human cells.
"This research is important for drug delivery, but also for fundamental structural biology and nanotechnology," McGill Chemistry professor Hanadi Sleiman, leader of the research team, said, a Nanotechnology Now press release reported.
Nanostructures are bigger than a molecule but smaller than other microscopic objects; they usually measure between 1 and 100 nanometers, Discovery reported.
Nanotechnology is classified as "the manipulation or self-assembly of individual atoms, molecules, or molecular clusters into structures to create materials and devices with new or vastly different properties," Discovery reported.
In the process, nanoscale "cages" are used to "encapsulate" medicine and distribute it to specific targets, the press release reported.
The McGill University researchers "created DNA cubes using short DNA strands, and modified them with lipid-like molecules."
The lipids band together, creating a strong core that can hold drugs inside the DNA "cubes."
The lipids can also act as sticky "patches" and hold two cubes together.
"It opens up a range of new possibilities for designing DNA-based nanomaterials," Sleiman said.
Using this system to administer drugs instead of synthetic materials has many benefits.
"DNA structures can be built with great precision, they are biodegradable and their size, shape and properties can be easily tuned," Thomas Edwardson, a McGill doctoral student and co-author of the paper, said.
Using DNA to release drugs in the body was previously demonstrated with gold nanoparticles. This study used even smaller particles.
"Many diseased cells, such as cancer cells, overexpress certain genes." Edwardson said.
"In a future application, one can imagine a DNA cube that carries drug cargo to the diseased cell environment, which will trigger the release of the drug," he said.
The research group is now testing the system on animals to see if it will be a successful weapon against leukemia and prostate cancer.
