DNA Buckyballs: Potential Use of Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery

Filed in archive Drugs, Vaccines and Therapeutics on August 29, 2005

The make use of DNA, but their study can hardly be classified as genetics. In a paper presented yesterday at the same ACS meeting where the ryanodine-receptor-insecticides were presented, Cornell University researchers have made DNA buckyballs -- tiny geodesic spheres-- that could be used for drug delivery and as containers for chemical reactions.

Using specially synthesized, branched DNA-polystyrene hybrid they were able to produce a structure that spontaneously self-assemble into hollow balls of about 400 nanometers (nm) in diameter and about 15 nm length. And because about 70 percent of the volume of the DNA buckyball is hollow, biodegradable and biocompatible, they could be ideal for drug encapsualtion.

Dan Luo, Cornell assistant professor of biological and environmental engineering in whose lab the DNA structures were made, suggests that drugs could be encapsulated in buckyballs to be carried into cells, where natural enzymes would break down the DNA, releasing the drug. They might also be used as cages to study chemical reactions on the nanoscale, he says. Luo added that DNA buckyballs may turn out to have unusual electronic, photonic and mechanical properties, and that because DNA is easily labeled and manipulated, his research group's work offers a way to study in detail the self-assembly process -- a process very important to the future development of nanotechnology.