Nucleic acid paranemic structures: a promising building block for functional nanomaterials in biomedical and bionanotechnological applications

• Published in: Journal of materials chemistry. B, Materials for biology and medicine Materials for biology and medicine, 2022-09, Vol.1 (37), p.746-7472
• Main Authors: Lee, Jung Yeon, Yang, Qi, Chang, Xu, Wisniewski, Henry, Olivera, Tiffany R, Saji, Minu, Kim, Suchan, Perumal, Devanathan, Zhang, Fei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biocompatibility; Biodegradability; Biodegradation; Biomedical materials; Construction; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; Dynamical systems; Fabrication; Functional materials; Materials science; Nanoengineering; Nanomaterials; Nanostructure; Nanotechnology; Nucleic acids; Reviews; Self-assembly
• ISSN: 2050-750X; 2050-7518
• DOI: 10.1039/d2tb00605g

Over the past few decades, DNA has been recognized as a powerful self-assembling material capable of crafting supramolecular nanoarchitectures with quasi-angstrom precision, which promises various applications in the fields of materials science, nanoengineering, and biomedical science. Notable structural features include biocompatibility, biodegradability, high digital encodability by Watson-Crick base pairing, nanoscale dimension, and surface addressability. Bottom-up fabrication of complex DNA nanostructures relies on the design of fundamental DNA motifs, including parallel (PX) and antiparallel (AX) crossovers. However, paranemic or PX motifs have not been thoroughly explored for the construction of DNA-based nanostructures compared to AX motifs. In this review, we summarize the developments of PX-based DNA nanostructures, highlight the advantages as well as challenges of PX-based assemblies, and give an overview of the structural and chemical features that lend their utilization in a variety of applications. The works presented cover PX-based DNA nanostructures in biological systems, dynamic systems, and biomedical contexts. The possible future advances of PX structures and applications are also summarized, discussed, and postulated. This review highlights the PX-based DNA nanostructures in biological systems, dynamic systems, and biomedical contexts.