Synthesis of Peptide Nucleic Acid-Zirconium Coordination Nanoparticles

Peptide nucleic acids (PNA) not only enable utilization as antisense oligonucleotides in biomedical applications, but also as building units in nanomaterials science. Their unique characteristics, such as high stability, design flexibility, ease of manufacturing, and high affinity toward complementary sequences, are ideal to realize precise molecular assemblies. Another type of supramolecular chemistry is represented by metal-organic frameworks, which are produced via coordination-driven self-assembly of organic linker molecules with metal or metal-oxo clusters. In this methodical chapter, we describe the generation of zirconium-coordinated PNA nanoparticles assembled from metal-oxo clusters and carboxylic acid-modified PNA as an organic linker component. PNA-Zr coordination particles (CPs) feature exceptionally high PNA loading capacity and can include intrinsic biofunctional properties, if active PNA sequences are used. To tune desired properties and increase stability and cellular uptake characteristics, PNA-Zr nanoparticles can additionally be coated with suitable polymers.