Jan Willem de Vries

Drug delivery systems based on nucleic acid nanostructures.

The field of DNA nanotechnology has progressed rapidly in recent years and hence a large variety of 1D-, 2D- and 3D DNA nanostructures with various sizes, geometries and shapes is readily accessible. DNA-based nanoobjects are fabricated by straight forward design and self-assembly processes allowing the exact positioning of functional moieties and the integration of other materials. At the same time some of these nanosystems are characterized by a low toxicity profile. As a consequence, the use of these architectures in a biomedical context has been explored. In this review the progress and possibilities of pristine nucleic acid nanostructures and DNA hybrid materials for drug delivery will be discussed. For the latter class of structures, a distinction is made between carriers with an inorganic core composed of gold or silica and amphiphilic DNA block copolymers that exhibit a soft hydrophobic interior.

Giant Surfactants Created by the Fast and Efficient Functionalization of a DNA Tetrahedron with a Temperature-Responsive Polymer

Copper catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) was employed to synthesize DNA block copolymers (DBCs) with a range of polymer blocks including temperature-responsive poly(N-isoproylacrylamide) (poly(NIPAM)) and highly hydrophobic poly(styrene). Exceptionally high yields were achieved at low DNA concentrations, in organic solvents, and in the absence of any solid support. The DNA segment of the DBC remained capable of sequence-specific hybridization: it was used to assemble a precisely defined nanostructure, a DNA tetrahedron, with pendant poly(NIPAM) segments. In the presence of an excess of poly(NIPAM) homopolymer, the tetrahedron-poly(NIPAM) conjugate nucleated the formation of large, well-defined nanoparticles at 40 °C, a temperature at which the homopolymer precipitated from solution. These composite nanoparticles were observed by dynamic light scattering and cryoTEM, and their hybrid nature was confirmed by AFM imaging. As a result of the large effective surface area of the tetrahedron, only very low concentrations of the conjugate were required in order for this surfactant-like behavior to be observed.

Solid-state biophotovoltaic cells containing photosystem I.

The large multiprotein complex, photosystem I (PSI), which is at the heart of light-dependent reactions in photosynthesis, is integrated as the active component in a solid-state organic photovoltaic cell. These experiments demonstrate that photoactive megadalton protein complexes are compatible with solution processing of organic-semiconductor materials and operate in a dry non-natural environment that is very different from the biological membrane.

Non-covalent Monolayer-Piercing Anchoring of Lipophilic Nucleic Acids: Preparation, Characterization, and Sensing Applications

Functional interfaces of biomolecules and inorganic substrates like semiconductor materials are of utmost importance for the development of highly sensitive biosensors and microarray technology. However, there is still a lot of room for improving the techniques for immobilization of biomolecules, in particular nucleic acids and proteins. Conventional anchoring strategies rely on attaching biomacromolecules via complementary functional groups, appropriate bifunctional linker molecules, or non-covalent immobilization via electrostatic interactions. In this work, we demonstrate a facile, new, and general method for the reversible non-covalent attachment of amphiphilic DNA probes containing hydrophobic units attached to the nucleobases (lipid-DNA) onto SAM-modified gold electrodes, silicon semiconductor surfaces, and glass substrates. We show the anchoring of well-defined amounts of lipid-DNA onto the surface by insertion of their lipid tails into the hydrophobic monolayer structure. The surface coverage of DNA molecules can be conveniently controlled by modulating the initial concentration and incubation time. Further control over the DNA layer is afforded by the additional external stimulus of temperature. Heating the DNA-modified surfaces at temperatures >80 °C leads to the release of the lipid-DNA structures from the surface without harming the integrity of the hydrophobic SAMs. These supramolecular DNA layers can be further tuned by anchoring onto a mixed SAM containing hydrophobic molecules of different lengths, rather than a homogeneous SAM. Immobilization of lipid-DNA on such SAMs has revealed that the surface density of DNA probes is highly dependent on the composition of the surface layer and the structure of the lipid-DNA. The formation of the lipid-DNA sensing layers was monitored and characterized by numerous techniques including X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, quartz crystal microbalance, ellipsometry, contact angle measurements, atomic force microscopy, and confocal fluorescence imaging. Finally, this new DNA modification strategy was applied for the sensing of target DNAs using silicon-nanowire field-effect transistor device arrays, showing a high degree of specificity toward the complementary DNA target, as well as single-base mismatch selectivity.

Nucleic acid chemistry in the organic phase: from functionalized oligonucleotides to DNA side chain polymers.

DNA-incorporating hydrophobic moieties can be synthesized by either solid-phase or solution-phase coupling. On a solid support the DNA is protected, and hydrophobic units are usually attached employing phosphoramidite chemistry involving a DNA synthesizer. On the other hand, solution coupling in aqueous medium results in low yields due to the solvent incompatibility of DNA and hydrophobic compounds. Hence, the development of a general coupling method for producing amphiphilic DNA conjugates with high yield in solution remains a major challenge. Here, we report an organic-phase coupling strategy for nucleic acid modification and polymerization by introducing a hydrophobic DNA-surfactant complex as a reactive scaffold. A remarkable range of amphiphile-DNA structures (DNA-pyrene, DNA-triphenylphosphine, DNA-hydrocarbon, and DNA block copolymers) and a series of new brush-type DNA side-chain homopolymers with high DNA grafting density are produced efficiently. We believe that this method is an important breakthrough in developing a generalized approach to synthesizing functional DNA molecules for self-assembly and related technological applications.

Filling the Green Gap of a Megadalton Photosystem I Complex by Conjugation of Organic Dyes

Photosynthesis is Natures major process for converting solar into chemical energy. One of the key players in this process is the multiprotein complex photosystem I (PSI) that through absorption of incident photons enables electron transfer, which makes this protein attractive for applications in bioinspired photoactive hybrid materials. However, the efficiency of PSI is still limited by its poor absorption in the green part of the solar spectrum. Inspired by the existence of natural phycobilisome light-harvesting antennae, we have widened the absorption spectrum of PSI by covalent attachment of synthetic dyes to the protein backbone. Steady-state and time-resolved photoluminescence reveal that energy transfer occurs from these dyes to PSI. It is shown by oxygen-consumption measurements that subsequent charge generation is substantially enhanced under broad and narrow band excitation. Ultimately, surface photovoltage (SPV) experiments prove the enhanced activity of dye-modified PSI even in the solid state.

Sequence-specific nucleic acid mobility using a reversible block copolymer gel matrix and DNA amphiphiles (lipid-DNA) in capillary and microfluidic electrophoretic separations

Reversible noncovalent but sequence‐dependent attachment of DNA to gels is shown to allow programmable mobility processing of DNA populations. The covalent attachment of DNA oligomers to polyacrylamide gels using acrydite‐modified oligonucleotides has enabled sequence‐specific mobility assays for DNA in gel electrophoresis: sequences binding to the immobilized DNA are delayed in their migration. Such a system has been used for example to construct complex DNA filters facilitating DNA computations. However, these gels are formed irreversibly and the choice of immobilized sequences is made once off during fabrication. In this work, we demonstrate the reversible self‐assembly of gels combined with amphiphilic DNA molecules, which exhibit hydrophobic hydrocarbon chains attached to the nucleobase. This amphiphilic DNA, which we term lipid‐DNA, is synthesized in advance and is blended into a block copolymer gel to induce sequence‐dependent DNA retention during electrophoresis. Furthermore, we demonstrate and characterize the programmable mobility shift of matching DNA in such reversible gels both in thin films and microchannels using microelectrode arrays. Such sequence selective separation may be employed to select nucleic acid sequences of similar length from a mixture via local electronics, a basic functionality that can be employed in novel electronic chemical cell designs and other DNA information‐processing systems.

Photoswitching of DNA Hybridization Using a Molecular Motor

Reversible control over the functionality of biological systems via external triggers may be used in future medicine to reduce the need for invasive procedures. Additionally, externally regulated biomacromolecules are now considered as particularly attractive tools in nanoscience and the design of smart materials, due to their highly programmable nature and complex functionality. Incorporation of photoswitches into biomolecules, such as peptides, antibiotics, and nucleic acids, has generated exciting results in the past few years. Molecular motors offer the potential for new and more precise methods of photoregulation, due to their multistate switching cycle, unidirectionality of rotation, and helicity inversion during the rotational steps. Aided by computational studies, we designed and synthesized a photoswitchable DNA hairpin, in which a molecular motor serves as the bridgehead unit. After it was determined that motor function was not affected by the rigid arms of the linker, solid-phase synthesis was employed to incorporate the motor into an 8-base-pair self-complementary DNA strand. With the photoswitchable bridgehead in place, hairpin formation was unimpaired, while the motor part of this advanced biohybrid system retains excellent photochemical properties. Rotation of the motor generates large changes in structure, and as a consequence the duplex stability of the oligonucleotide could be regulated by UV light irradiation. Additionally, Molecular Dynamics computations were employed to rationalize the observed behavior of the motor–DNA hybrid. The results presented herein establish molecular motors as powerful multistate switches for application in biological environments.

Lipid-DNAs as Solubilizers of mTHPC

Abstract Hydrophobic drug candidates require innovative formulation agents. We designed and synthesized lipid‐DNA polymers containing varying numbers of hydrophobic alkyl chains. The hydrophobicity of these amphiphiles is easily tunable by introducing a defined number of alkyl chain‐modified nucleotides during standard solid‐phase synthesis of DNA using an automated DNA synthesizer. We observed that the resulting self‐assembled micelles solubilize the poorly water‐soluble drug, meta‐tetra‐hydroxyphenyl‐chlorin (mTHPC) used in photodynamic therapy (PDT) with high loading concentrations and loading capacities. A cell viability study showed that mTHPC‐loaded micelles exhibit good biocompatibility without irradiation, and high PDT efficacy upon irradiation. Lipid‐DNAs provide a novel class of drug‐delivery vehicle, and hybridization of DNA offers a potentially facile route for further functionalization of the drug‐delivery system with, for instance, targeting or imaging moieties.