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Tohoku University

Abstract

 All the creatures on Earth are made of cells. The exterior and the interior of the cell are compartmentalized by biomembranes. A nanodevice that is able to actively transport only the specific oligonucleotide through the biomembrane has a great potential to deliver siRNA into the cell or to extract mRNA expressed in the cell.
Here, we decided to create a novel device with such a function.
We have designed a cylindrical injector/extractor device made of DNA origami. Inside the cylinder, a cascade of single stranded DNAs is planted. Once the outer-most ssDNA binds to a target oligonucleotide,　the target is passed to the inner-ones one by one because of the higher bonding energy assigned to the inner ones.
We also investigate how the cylinder penetrates the biomembrane by using liposome as a model membrane.

Project Image

Porter: Single stranded DNA. Once the outer-most ssDNA binds to a target,　the target is passed to the inner-ones one by one.
Gate: Cylindrical structure connecting the inside and outside like gates. A cascade of the "Selector" is planted in this. We can use this as an injector or extractor.
Membrane: The exterior and the interior of the cell are compartmentalized by biomembranes. We use liposome as a model membrane.