DNA ’building blocks’ pave the way for improved drug delivery

DNA has been used as a 'molecular building block' to construct synthetic bio-inspired pores which will improve the way drugs are delivered and help advance the field of synthetic biology, according to scientists from UCL and Nanion Technologies. The study, published today and funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Leverhulme Trust and UCL Chemistry, shows how DNA can be used to build stable and predictable pores that have a defined shape and charge to control which molecules can pass through the pore and when. Lead author, Dr Stefan Howorka (UCL Chemistry), said: "Natural biological pores made of proteins are essential for transporting cargo into and out of biological cells but they are hard to design from scratch. DNA offers a whole new strategy for constructing highly specific synthetic pores that we can open and close on demand. We've engineered our pores to act like doors - the door unlocks only when provided with the right key. By building these pores into drug carriers, we think it will allow for much more precise targeting of therapeutics." Many therapeutics including anti-cancer drugs can be ferried around the body in tiny carriers called vesicles which are targeted to different tissues using biological markers. Previously, releasing the drugs from inside the vesicles was triggered with temperature-induced leaky vesicle walls or with inserted peptide channels, which are less rigid and predictable than DNA.