Zhang Libing, Jean Sae Rin, Ahmed Sharif, Aldridge Peter M, Li Xiyan, Fan Fengjia, Sargent Edward H, Kelley Shana O
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 3M2.
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Arts and Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 3H6.
Nat Commun. 2017 Aug 29;8(1):381. doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-00298-w.
Biotemplated nanomaterials offer versatile functionality for multimodal imaging, biosensing, and drug delivery. There remains an unmet need for traceable and biocompatible nanomaterials that can be synthesized in a precisely controllable manner. Here, we report self-assembled quantum dot DNA hydrogels that exhibit both size and spectral tunability. We successfully incorporate DNA-templated quantum dots with high quantum yield, long-term photostability, and low cytotoxicity into a hydrogel network in a single step. By leveraging DNA-guided interactions, we introduce multifunctionality for a variety of applications, including enzyme-responsive drug delivery and cell-specific targeting. We report that quantum dot DNA hydrogels can be used for delivery of doxorubicin, an anticancer drug, to increase potency 9-fold against cancer cells. This approach also demonstrated high biocompatibility, trackability, and in vivo therapeutic efficacy in mice bearing xenografted breast cancer tumors. This work paves the way for the development of new tunable biotemplated nanomaterials with multiple synergistic functionalities for biomedical applications.The development of nanomaterials for imaging and drug delivery has been of great interest to the field. Here, the authors synthesized multifunctional enzyme-responsive hydrogels with self-assembling quantum dots for nucleic acid and drug delivery as well as having imaging capability.
生物模板纳米材料为多模态成像、生物传感和药物递送提供了多功能性。对于能够以精确可控方式合成的可追踪且生物相容的纳米材料，仍存在未满足的需求。在此，我们报告了具有尺寸和光谱可调性的自组装量子点DNA水凝胶。我们成功地将具有高量子产率、长期光稳定性和低细胞毒性的DNA模板量子点一步法纳入水凝胶网络。通过利用DNA引导的相互作用，我们为包括酶响应性药物递送和细胞特异性靶向在内的各种应用引入了多功能性。我们报告量子点DNA水凝胶可用于递送抗癌药物阿霉素，对癌细胞的效力提高9倍。这种方法在携带异种移植乳腺癌肿瘤的小鼠中也显示出高生物相容性、可追踪性和体内治疗效果。这项工作为开发具有多种协同功能的新型可调生物模板纳米材料用于生物医学应用铺平了道路。用于成像和药物递送的纳米材料的开发一直是该领域非常感兴趣的。在此，作者合成了具有自组装量子点的多功能酶响应水凝胶，用于核酸和药物递送以及具有成像能力。
