Abstract

Targeted delivery of drugs plays a significant role in the treatment of disease. In various cases, we can’t achieve the expected efficacy or even introduced some serious side effects just because the drug can’t be transported directionally. To solve this problem, we engineered an intelligent delivery system which can be magnetically controlled and has the ability to identify specific cells. We call it "The Nano-ship of Maritime Silk-Road".

Just like the ancient Chinese ship on the maritime silk road transporting china and tea to the world, our Nano-ship, will carry treatment material to its final targets. In order to achieve this goal of having a better targeting capability than single nanoparticles, we have designed a flagellum-like magnetic nanoparticles string for Nano-ship to drive.

Our "Nano-ship" is like a little clever tadpole, which consists of a head which can recognize and a tail that can swing .The head is made up of the substances that need to be transported and we can give it special identification function by linking aptamer. Scaffold DNA and staple strands can self-assembled into a tube which is the main body of the tail. And it stretched out several short ssDNA as designed to connect the Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles and the head. Therefore, the self-assembled tail can swing autonomously in an alternating field and provide the power for the "Nano-ship" to move towards a certain target. In the experiment, we used a gold nanoparticle which is modified with oligonucleotide probes to be the head of "Nano-ship" .The probes on the gold nanoparticle not only connect to the designed position of the tail but also contains aptamers：An oligonucleotide probe that has the function of specifically recognizing cancer cells. Meanwhile the tissue penetration ability and unique role in the destruction effect of cells are highlights of our structure. Our "Nano-ship" structure can also be applied to orientation to the efficient delivery of material such as antibody, small synthetic molecules, DNA molecular cages, etc.

We hope this "Nano-ship" transport platform can be applied to cancer treatment and many other fields to demonstrate its broad application prospects.

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