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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