Rapid self‐assembly of γPNA nanofibers at constant temperature

• Published in: Biopolymers Vol. 112; no. 11; pp. e23463 - n/a
• Main Authors: Kumar, Sriram, Dhami, Isha, Thadke, Shivaji A., Ly, Danith H., Taylor, Rebecca E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken, USA John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.11.2021; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Antisense therapy; Assembling; DNA; Functional materials; Gene expression; isothermal assembly; Micropatterning; Nanofibers; Nanomaterials; Nanostructures; nucleic acid nanotechnology; Nucleic acids; Peptide Nucleic Acids; Peptides; Temperature; template‐assisted growth; nucleic acid nanotechnology; template-assisted growth; isothermal assembly; peptide nucleic acids
• ISSN: 0006-3525; 1097-0282
• DOI: 10.1002/bip.23463

Peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) have primarily been used to achieve therapeutic gene modulation through antisense strategies since their design in the 1990s. However, the application of PNAs as a functional nanomaterial has been more recent. We recently reported that γ‐modified peptide nucleic acids (γPNAs) could be used to enable formation of complex, self‐assembling nanofibers in select polar aprotic organic solvent mixtures. Here we demonstrate that distinct γPNA strands, each with a high density of γ‐modifications can form complex nanostructures at constant temperatures within 30 minutes. Additionally, we demonstrate DNA‐assisted isothermal growth of γPNA nanofibers, thereby overcoming a key hurdle for future scale‐up of applications related to nanofiber growth and micropatterning.