Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 8, 2026

Highly Efficient Transfection of Primary Macrophages with In Vitro Transcribed mRNA
Published on: November 9, 2019
A multifunctional DNA nano-scorpion for highly efficient targeted delivery of mRNA therapeutics
Dandan Li1, Fei Mo2, Jiangling Wu2
1Department of Laboratory Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, 400010, P.R. China.
Abstract:
The highly efficient cancer cell targeted delivery plays an important role in precise targeted therapies. Herein, a multifunctional DNA nano-scorpion nanostructure (termed AptDzy-DNS) functioned with aptamers and DNAzyme is developed for highly efficient targeted delivery of mRNA therapeutics in gene therapy. The designed AptDzy-DNS is self-assembled with specific aptamers as "scorpion stingers" for targeting tumor cell and DNAzymes as "scorpion pincers" for targeted gene therapy by cleaving mRNA into fragments. The as-prepared AptDzy-DNS can effectively distinguish cancer cells from normal cells by specific cross-talking between aptamers on AptDzy-DNS and overexpressed cell-surface receptors. In the process of gene therapy, by reacting with Mg2+-dependent DNAzyme on AptDzy-DNS, the mRNA oligonucleotide in cancer cell is auto-cleaved into broken strand, failing to be translated into corresponding protein. Following, the downregulation protein can block cancer cell growth and realize highly efficient targeted therapies. The results demonstrate that the multifunctional AptDzy-DNS shows promise for targeted cancer cell discrimination, highly efficient targeted delivery of mRNA therapeutics in gene therapy. Thus, this developed strategy provides impressive improvement on gene targeted therapy and paves the way for application of AptDzy-DNS in human cancer targeted therapies.
More Related Videos
07:49CRISPR Epigenome Editing in Human Cells using Plasmid DNA Transfection and mRNA Nucleofection Delivery
Published on: May 30, 2025
08:35Therapeutic Gene Delivery and Transfection in Human Pancreatic Cancer Cells using Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor-targeted Gelatin Nanoparticles
Published on: January 4, 2012
Related Concept Videos
DNA-only Transposons
The donor site from where the transposon is excised is either degraded or...
Regulated mRNA Transport
pre-mRNA Processing
Once about 20-40 ribonucleotides have been joined together by RNA polymerase, a group of enzymes adds a “cap” to the 5’ end of the growing transcript. In this process, a 5’ phosphate is replaced by modified guanosine that has a methyl group attached to it (7-Methyl...
Nuclear Export of mRNA
Chromatin Structure Regulates pre-mRNA Processing
The chromatin structure, especially...
mRNA Stability and Gene Expression
Cis-acting Elements involved in mRNA stability