Rolling Circle Amplification-Based DNA Nano-Assembly for Targeted Drug Delivery and Gene Therapy

Combining the killing ability of chemotherapy drugs on tumor cells with the inhibiting ability of genetic drugs on tumor cell growth, a dual drug delivery system loaded with therapy drugs and siRNA has gradually received more and more research and extensive attention. In this paper, we designed a DNA nano-assembly based on rolling circle amplification that can co-deliver doxorubicin (Dox) and siRNA simultaneously. In order to fully exploit the potential of the dual loading system in cancer treatment, we selected STAT3 gene as a target and used siRNA to target STAT3 of mRNA and reduce the STAT3 expression in mouse melanoma cell line (B16); meanwhile, Dox as a chemotherapy drug was combined with multivalent aptamers specifically targeting B16 to achieve efficient delivery of siRNA and Dox. The results showed that the synergistic delivery system could achieve high efficiency in targeting and inhibiting proliferation in mouse melanoma cells. In addition, the synergistic effect of the dual delivery system on apoptosis of cancer cells was significantly better than that of single drug delivery systems.