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Cut and Paste for Cancer Treatment: A DNA Nanodevice that Cuts Out an RNA Marker Sequence to Activate a Therapeutic Function
Author(s) -
Molden Tatiana A.,
Niccum Caitlyn T.,
Kolpashchikov Dmitry M.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.202006384
Subject(s) - nanodevice , oligonucleotide , dna , rna , gene , point mutation , computational biology , housekeeping gene , dna sequencing , biology , mutation , genetics , nanotechnology , gene expression , materials science
DNA nanotechnology uses oligonucleotide strands to assemble molecular structures capable of performing useful operations. Here, we assembled a multifunctional prototype DNA nanodevice, DOCTR, that recognizes a single nucleotide mutation in a cancer marker RNA. The nanodevice then cuts out a signature sequence and uses it as an activator for a “therapeutic” function, namely, the cleavage of another RNA sequence. The proposed design is a prototype for a gene therapy DNA machine that cleaves a housekeeping gene only in the presence of a cancer‐causing point mutation and suppresses cancer cells exclusively with minimal side effects to normal cells.