Currently, chemotherapy is still the main clinical treatment strategy for cancer. Although it has produced significant effects, chemotherapy also has a destructive effect on normal tissues and cells, bringing many side effects to patients. Therefore, it is very necessary to study high-precision, safe and controllable treatment strategies. With the development of research, the nanocarriers constructed by nucleic acids with addressable and sequence specificity have caught the attention of researchers.
Recently, National Science Review published an academic paper titled "Construction of nanocarriers based on nucleic acids and their application in nanobiology delivery systems" online, which was organized and written by Professor Yingshu Guo of Qilu University of Technology and Professor Weihong Tan of Institute of Oncology and Basic Medicine of Chinese Academy of Sciences. The paper deeply analyzed the classification and characteristics of NCNAs and systematically summarized their applications and advantages in the field of nanobiotics (Figure 1).
In this paper, NCNAs are divided into three types: 1) DNA nanocarriers; 2) RNA nanocarriers; 3) DNA/RNA composite nanocarriers. The application of NCNAs in biosensing is introduced in detail. The addition of NCNAs can improve nanomaterials' ability of target recognition, effectively identify and analyze the target material, accurately control and trigger the reaction process, which has the potential of further exploration and application.
In addition, the thesis also from NCNAs in cargo loading and transport (chemical drug delivery, gene delivery, vaccine delivery, photosensitizer delivery, etc.) and the application in the field of diagnosis logic gates are introduced systematically and in-depth analysis. Meanwhile the application is in its infancy, and its clinical application is still a long way to go, needing to in-depth understanding the characteristic of NCNAs for the exploration of higher precision, fully controllable nanocarriers.
Source: http://www.scichina.com/english/