Shu Xing,Dawei Jiang,Fan Li,Jiang Li,Qian Li,Qing Huang,Linjie Guo,Jiaoyun Xia,Jiye Shi,Chunhai Fan,Lan Zhang,Lihua Wang
DNA nanostructures have attracted great attention due to their precisely controllable geometry and great potential in various areas including bottom-up self-assembly. However, construction of higher-order DNA nanoarchitectures with individual DNA nanostructures is often hampered with the purity and quantity of these “bricks”. Here, we introduced size exclusion chromatography (SEC) to prepare highly purified tetrahedral DNA nanocages in large scale and demonstrated that precise quantification of DNA nanocages was the key to the formation of higher-order DNA nanoarchitectures. We successfully purified a series of DNA nanocages with different sizes, including seven DNA tetrahedra with different edge lengths (7, 10, 13, 17, 20, 26, 30 bp) and one trigonal bipyramid with a 20-bp edge. These highly purified and aggregation-free DNA nanocages could be self-assembled into higher-order DNA nanoarchitectures with extraordinarily high yields (98% for dimer and 95% for trimer). As a comparison, unpurified DNA nanocages resulted in low yield of 14% for dimer and 12% for trimer, respectively. AFM images cleraly presented the characteristic structure of monomer, dimer and trimer, impling the purified DNA nanocages well-formed the designed nanoarchitectures. Therefore, we have demonstrated that highly purified DNA nanocages are excellent “bricks” for DNA nanotechnology and show great potential in various applications of DNA nanomaterials.
Low-mass soluble β-amyloid peptide oligomers (LSAβOs) play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease. However, these oligomers exhibit heterogeneity in terms of structure, stability, and stoichiometry, and their abundance in biofluids is low, making accurate identification challenging. In this study, we developed a DNA nanocage-assisted method for selective sizing and sensitive quantification of LSAβOs in serum. Using LSAβO less than 10 kDa (LSAβO10kD) and less than 30 kDa (LSAβO30kD) as models, the size-matching rules between DNA nanocages and LSAβOs were investigated, and two appropriate nanocages were selected for the detection of two LSAβOs, respectively. Both nanocages were functionalized by encapsulating oligomer’s aptamer and a complementary sequence within their cavities. Once the LSAβO entered the corresponding nanocage cavity, the complementary sequence was released, triggering a hybridization chain reaction on an electrochemical sensing platform. The system achieved size-selective discrimination of LSAβO10kD with a linear range of 10–150 pM and LSAβO30kD with a linear range of 15–150 pM. Real sample testing confirmed the applicability of the method for blood-based diagnosis. The DNA nanocage-assisted electrochemical analysis platform provides an accurate, highly selective, and sensitive approach for oligomer analysis, which is significant for amyloid protein research and related disease diagnosis.