“'This is the first study to demonstrate that DNA origami can be used to circumvent drug resistance,' says Hao Yan at Arizona State University in Tempe, who jointly led the work."
By hiding drugs inside folded up DNA, scientists can attack cancers that are resistant to chemotherapy.
At the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology in Beijing, China, Baoquan Dingat and his team inserted doxorubicin (a chemotherapy durg) into a nanostructure created by DNA origami through intercalation (see Figure 1). This "vehicle" created by DNA origami delivered a dose of the drug that killed human breast-cancer cells (adenocarcinoma) that were resistant to doxorubicin. By hiding the drug, cancer cells do not see doxorubicin as a threat. DNA origami also increases the drug's activity by changing the pH level inside the cell.
In addition, by delivering the chemotherapy drugs specifically to cancer cells, the healthy human cells are spared from getting harmed.
These results suggests that "DNA origami has immense potential as an efficient, biocompatible drug carrier and delivery vehicle in the treatment of cancer".
Figure 1: Doxorubicin in DNA Origami
