Zhou Lifeng, Chandrasekaran Arun Richard, Yan Mengwen, Valsangkar Vibhav A, Feldblyum Jeremy I, Sheng Jia, Halvorsen Ken
The RNA Institute, University at Albany, State University of New York Albany NY, USA
Department of Chemistry, University at Albany, State University of New York Albany NY USA.
Nanoscale Adv. 2021 Jun 7;3(14):4048-4051. doi: 10.1039/d1na00026h. eCollection 2021 Jul 13.
DNA origami is typically used to fold a long single-stranded DNA scaffold into nanostructures with complex geometries using many short DNA staple strands. Integration of RNA into nucleic acid nanostructures is also possible, but has been less studied. In this research, we designed and characterized a hybrid RNA-scaffolded origami nanostructure with dimensions of ∼12 nm. We used 12 DNA staple strands to fold a 401 nt RNA scaffold into a ten-helix bundle with a honeycomb cross section. We verified the construction of the nanostructure using gel electrophoresis and atomic force microscopy. The DNA-RNA hybrid origami showed higher resistance to ribonuclease compared to a DNA-RNA duplex control. Our work shows potential use in folding long RNA, such as messenger RNA, into origami nanostructures that can be delivered into targeted cells as medicine or a vaccine.
DNA折纸术通常用于使用许多短的DNA钉状链将一条长的单链DNA支架折叠成具有复杂几何形状的纳米结构。将RNA整合到核酸纳米结构中也是可行的，但相关研究较少。在本研究中，我们设计并表征了一种尺寸约为12纳米的混合RNA支架折纸纳米结构。我们使用12条DNA钉状链将一个401个核苷酸的RNA支架折叠成具有蜂窝状横截面的十螺旋束。我们使用凝胶电泳和原子力显微镜验证了纳米结构的构建。与DNA-RNA双链对照相比，DNA-RNA混合折纸对核糖核酸酶表现出更高的抗性。我们的工作显示了将长RNA（如信使RNA）折叠成折纸纳米结构的潜在用途，这些纳米结构可以作为药物或疫苗递送至靶细胞。
