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Updated: Sep 23, 2025
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Stable DNA Motifs, 1D and 2D Nanostructures Constructed from Small Circular DNA Molecules
Published on: April 12, 2019
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Determining the Cytosolic Stability of Small DNA Nanostructures In Cellula
Divita Mathur1,2, Katherine E Rogers2,3, Sebastián A Díaz2
1College of Science, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia 22030, United States.
Nano Letters
|May 17, 2022
Summary
DNA nanostructures
Area of Science:
- Biomedical engineering
- Molecular biology
- Nanotechnology
Background:
- DNA nanostructures show promise in biomedicine.
- Intracellular stability of DNA nanostructures is largely unknown.
- Endocytic uptake complicates direct stability assessment.
Purpose of the Study:
- To directly evaluate DNA nanostructure stability in live cell cytosol.
- To compare the stability of different DNA nanostructures.
- To inform the design of DNA nanostructures with tunable degradation rates.
Main Methods:
- Microinjection of labeled DNA nanostructures (crosshairs, tetrahedron) into live cells.
- Monitoring structural integrity via Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) dye cascade and fluorescence microscopy.
- Assessing degradation rates in real-time within the cell cytosol.
- Utilizing nuclease assays and analyzing torsional rigidity for stability confirmation.
Main Results:
- DNA crosshair structures degraded rapidly within 20 minutes.
- DNA tetrahedron structures remained intact for at least 1 hour.
- The tetrahedron's higher stability was confirmed by nuclease assays and its inherent torsional rigidity.
Conclusions:
- DNA nanostructure stability varies significantly.
- The DNA tetrahedron exhibits superior cytosolic stability compared to the crosshair.
- This research provides critical data for designing DNA nanostructures with predictable degradation kinetics for biomedical applications.
