DNA nanolantern as biocompatible drug carrier for simple preparation of a porphyrin/G-quadruplex nanocomposite photosensitizer with high photodynamic efficacy

Abstract

To overcome the undesirable immune response and adverse side effects, and improve the therapeutic effect, developing a nanocarrier with good biocompatibility and high biosecurity to achieve highly efficient loading of drugs is still urgently needed. For the carriers of photodynamic therapy (PDT) photosensitizers, one of the special requirements is that the photosensitizers are better loaded on the carrier surface. In this paper, we give a paradigm of applying a pure DNA assembly as a biocompatible nanocarrier for highly efficient photosensitizer loading. Via simple DNA hybridization reactions, a pure DNA assembly (termed as a DNA nanolantern) with abundant modifiable sites was prepared and developed as a good nanocarrier for the loading of a porphyrin/G-quadruplex composite photosensitizer on the surface. The as-prepared DNA-based nanocomposite photosensitizer (DNA-NCPS) was characterized by various techniques and demonstrated to hold the charming features of nanoscale size, good monodispersity, robust biostability, strong light absorption in the biological transparent window, high tumor accumulation and cell internalization efficiency, excellent biological safety, low dark toxicity and high phototoxicity, thus showing great promise for PDT applications. Its PDT potential was verified by both in vitro cell and in vivo animal experiments. This study exhibits the great potential of pure DNA nanoassemblies in drug-loading, demonstrating their promising applications in therapy, diagnosis and theranostics.