Application and research progress of tetrahedral framework nucleic acids in the field of medicine

Abstract

Since the first proposal by Seeman in 1982, DNA nanostructures have been gradually improved, and have been widely developed and applied to the field of biomedical fields. In recent years, as a representative of 3D DNA nanostructures, tetrahedral framework nucleic acids (tFNA) has made certain research progress and has good application prospects in frontier fields such as biosensors, tumor therapy, antigen detection, regenerative medicine, with the advantages of their good biocompatibility, editability, high stability and easy preparation. This paper briefly describes the concepts of tFNA, and summarizes the applications and research progress of tFNA in the following fields from the perspective of therapeutic applications: ① Building novel self-assembled complexes to improve the efficacy of free drugs, carrying small RNA molecules to slow down tumor progression, and self-assembled complexes for targeted therapy, etc, as biological vectors and tumor drug delivery. ② Regulating inflammation and immune response, such as reducing the level of inflammatory factors, treating inflammatory diseases, preventing diabetes, and acting as immunomodulators, etc. ③ Enhancing tissue regeneration, such as promoting stem cell proliferation and differentiation, stimulating peripheral nerve regeneration, and facilitating wound repair through angiogenesis. This review summarizes the research progress of tFNA, and looks forward to its application prospects based on the analysis of the shortcomings of existing research, in order to provide reference for further research.

Keywords

• tetrahedral framework nucleic acid (tfna)
• biological vector
• tumor
• inflammation
• immune response
• tissue regeneration
• wound repair