DNA Origami: A new
venture in treating Cancer
It is becoming an ever prevalent problem that tumour,
bacteria and the like, are becoming resistant to drugs. Other problems with
treating cancers include; the dilemma of destroying cancer cells without
harming healthy cells and delivery of the drug to the cancer cells. In recent
years nanoparticles have been manipulated and tested as carriers of drugs to
specific targets within the human body.
Structure and
formation:
DNA has four bases, Adenine which is complementary to
Thymine and Cytosine which complementary to Guanine. The hydrogen bonds loosely
hold the organic bases together. With this knowledge, DNA bases, sequenced
correctly can be put together. They can be put together in a single
polynucleotide chain that can then fold and twist. The complementary bases
attract each other and form a tertiary or quaternary structure. The resultant
product is a DNA based vehicle for drug delivery which can enter a cell and
survive for up to 48 hours.
How does the drug
reach the tumour cells?
One method, involves covering the DNA vehicle in lipids. The
DNA vehicle can then destroy the cancer cells through RNA interference (RNAi).
Another method involves attaching a molecule to the DNA based vehicle. The
molecule would be a protein eg a folate molecule. This would then attract the
DNA vehicle to the folate receptors that are commonly found on tumours.
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Doxorubicin is an anti-cancer drug. This is combined with the DNA origami to then specifically attack the tumour cells. |
Further reading: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja304263n
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