A review of functional nanotechnology: Its use and potential in precision medicine

Dynamic DNA-based devices have attracted growing interest from researchers as they establish control mechanisms for applications in precision medicine, such as targeted drug delivery, real-time monitoring of therapies and medical diagnostics. Kimna and Lieleg provide a review of different DNA-based constructs which can be categorized according to the tasks they perform, with a particular focus on the biomedical realm.

The DNA-based objects perform one of four main tasks: holding and releasing cargo, performing a direct healing action, detecting and measuring molecular or cellular signals, and guiding and directing objects through complex environments.

“I was astonished by how many DNA-based nano-objects have already been tested in complex biological settings,” said author Oliver Lieleg. “Creating a functional but robust structure that correctly performs its programmed mode of action in a physiological environment is far from trivial, and yet, several research efforts have already been successful in doing so.”

DNA-based nanotechnology could greatly influence conventional medicine as a new generation of DNA-based nano-devices interact with specific subsets of the cellular machinery, control the delivery and release of drugs, detect early markers of diseases, and perform their own therapeutic actions.

“I am convinced that gene editing approaches will very soon and strongly benefit from features made possible by smart DNA-based constructs,” said Lieleg. “Perhaps some of these approaches will be able to integrate logical gates into their molecular DNA-based machines to perform gene edits not only where needed but also only if needed.”

Source: “Molecular micromanagement: DNA nanotechnology establishes spatio-temporal control for precision medicine,” by Ceren Kimna and Oliver Lieleg, Biophysics Reviews (2020). The article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0033378 .