Assembly of liposomes controlled by triple helix formation

Attachment of DNA to the surface of different solid nanoparticles (e.g., gold and silica nanoparticles) is well established, and a number of DNA-modified solid nanoparticle systems have been applied to thermal denaturation analysis of oligonucleotides. We report herein the noncovalent immobilization of oligonucleotides on the surface of soft nanoparticles (i.e., liposomes) and the subsequent controlled assembly by DNA triple helix formation. The noncovalent approach avoids tedious surface chemistry and necessary purification procedures and can simplify and extend the available methodology for the otherwise difficult thermal denaturation analysis of complex triple helical DNA assemblies. The approach is based on lipid modified triplex forming oligonucleotides (TFOs) which control the assembly of liposomes in solution in the presence of single- or double-stranded DNA targets. The thermal denaturation analysis is monitored by ultraviolet spectroscopy at submicromolar concentrations and compared to regular thermal denaturation assays in the absence of liposomes. We report on triplex forming oligonucleotides (TFOs) based on DNA and locked nucleic acid (LNA)/DNA hybrid building blocks and different target sequences (G or C-rich) to explore the applicability of the method for different triple helical assembly modes. We demonstrate advantages and limitations of the approach and show the reversible and reproducible formation of liposome aggregates during thermal denaturation cycles. Nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) show independently from ultraviolet spectroscopy experiments the formation of liposome aggregates.