作者： Si Sun^a, Nihad Cheraga^b, Han-Ning Jiang^b, Qian-Ru Xiao^b, Peng-Cheng Gao^a, Yang Wang^a, Ying-Ying Wei^a, Xiao-Wei Wang^c, Yong Jiang^a

a School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu Province Hi-Tech Key Laboratory for Biomedical Research, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, PR China

b State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Sciences and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, PR China

c Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210036, PR China

摘要：A variety of three-dimensional DNA assemblies have been proposed as drug carriers owing to their good biocompatibility and easy fabrication. In this study, inspired by the structure of cockleburs, a novel aptamer-tethered DNA assembly was developed for effective targeted drug delivery. The Apt-nanocockleburs were fabricated via a facile process of DNA base pairing: four complementary DNA single strands, including one aptamer-ended strand and three sticky-end strands, were applied to pair with each other. The main body of the nanocockleburs can load doxorubicin (Dox) whilst the covered aptamer spines bind to the target MCF-7 cells. The self-assembled Apt-nanocockleburs exhibit higher cell uptake as well as increased cytotoxicity to MCF-7 cells than DNA nanocockleburs without aptamers. This study provided a DNA constructing platform to produce new drug carriers with high selectivity for cancer targeted drug delivery.

关键词：Self-assembly; DNA nanocockleburs; Target drug delivery; Aptamers