Dipartimento di Scienza Applicata e Tecnologia, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca Degli Abruzzi, 24, 10129, Torino, Italy.
Physical Science and Engineering and BESE Divisions, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.
Nat Commun. 2019 Apr 12;10(1):1690. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-09612-0.
The effect of direct or indirect binding of intercalant molecules on DNA structure is of fundamental importance in understanding the biological functioning of DNA. Here we report on self-suspended DNA nanobundles as ultrasensitive nanomechanical resonators for structural studies of DNA-ligand complexes. Such vibrating nanostructures represent the smallest mechanical resonator entirely composed of DNA. A correlative analysis between the mechanical and structural properties is exploited to study the intrinsic changes of double strand DNA, when interacting with different intercalant molecules (YOYO-1 and GelRed) and a chemotherapeutic drug (Cisplatin), at different concentrations. Possible implications of our findings are related to the study of interaction mechanism of a wide category of molecules with DNA, and to further applications in medicine, such as optimal titration of chemotherapeutic drugs and environmental studies for the detection of heavy metals in human serum.
碱基嵌入分子的直接或间接结合对 DNA 结构的影响对于理解 DNA 的生物学功能至关重要。在这里，我们报告了自悬浮 DNA 纳米束作为超灵敏的纳米机械谐振器，用于研究 DNA-配体复合物的结构。这种振动纳米结构代表了完全由 DNA 组成的最小机械谐振器。通过机械和结构特性的相关分析，研究了当与不同的嵌入剂分子（YOYO-1 和 GelRed）和一种化疗药物（顺铂）在不同浓度下相互作用时，双链 DNA 的固有变化。我们研究结果的可能意义与广泛类别的分子与 DNA 相互作用机制的研究以及在医学中的进一步应用有关，例如化疗药物的最佳滴定和用于检测人血清中重金属的环境研究。
