Li Hui, Lee Taek, Dziubla Thomas, Pi Fengmei, Guo Sijin, Xu Jing, Li Chan, Haque Farzin, Liang Xing-Jie, Guo Peixuan
Nanobiotechnology Center, Markey Cancer Center, and Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40536, USA.
Nanobiotechnology Center, Markey Cancer Center, and Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40536, USA; Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Sogang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Nano Today. 2015 Oct 1;10(5):631-655. doi: 10.1016/j.nantod.2015.09.003.
The value of polymers is manifested in their vital use as building blocks in material and life sciences. Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polynucleic acid, but its polymeric nature in materials and technological applications is often overlooked due to an impression that RNA is seemingly unstable. Recent findings that certain modifications can make RNA resistant to RNase degradation while retaining its authentic folding property and biological function, and the discovery of ultra-thermostable RNA motifs have adequately addressed the concerns of RNA unstability. RNA can serve as a unique polymeric material to build varieties of nanostructures including nanoparticles, polygons, arrays, bundles, membrane, and microsponges that have potential applications in biomedical and material sciences. Since 2005, more than a thousand publications on RNA nanostructures have been published in diverse fields, indicating a remarkable increase of interest in the emerging field of RNA nanotechnology. In this review, we aim to: delineate the physical and chemical properties of polymers that can be applied to RNA; introduce the unique properties of RNA as a polymer; review the current methods for the construction of RNA nanostructures; describe its applications in material, biomedical and computer sciences; and, discuss the challenges and future prospects in this field.
聚合物的价值体现在其作为材料科学和生命科学基础构建单元的重要用途上。核糖核酸（RNA）是一种多核酸，但由于人们认为RNA似乎不稳定，其在材料和技术应用中的聚合性质常常被忽视。最近的研究发现，某些修饰可以使RNA抵抗核糖核酸酶的降解，同时保留其真实的折叠特性和生物学功能，并且发现了超耐热的RNA基序，这些都充分解决了RNA稳定性的问题。RNA可以作为一种独特的聚合材料，用于构建各种纳米结构，包括纳米颗粒、多边形、阵列、束、膜和微海绵，这些纳米结构在生物医学和材料科学中具有潜在应用。自2005年以来，关于RNA纳米结构的一千多篇论文在不同领域发表，这表明人们对新兴的RNA纳米技术领域的兴趣显著增加。在这篇综述中，我们旨在：阐述可应用于RNA的聚合物的物理和化学性质；介绍RNA作为聚合物的独特性质；综述构建RNA纳米结构的当前方法；描述其在材料科学、生物医学和计算机科学中的应用；并讨论该领域的挑战和未来前景。
