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Metal–nucleic acid cages

Nature Chemistry volume 1, pages 390–396 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Metal–nucleic acid cages are a promising new class of materials. Like metallo-supramolecular cages, these systems can use their metals for redox, photochemical, magnetic and catalytic control over encapsulated cargo. However, using DNA provides the potential to program pore size, geometry, chemistry and addressability, and the ability to symmetrically and asymmetrically position transition metals within the three-dimensional framework. Here we report the quantitative construction of metal–DNA cages, with the site-specific incorporation of a range of metals within a three-dimensional DNA architecture. Oligonucleotide strands containing specific environments suitable for transition-metal coordination were first organized into two DNA triangles. These triangles were then assembled into a DNA prism with linking strands. Metal centres were subsequently incorporated into the prisms at the pre-programmed locations. This unprecedented ability to position transition metals within a three-dimensional framework could lead to metal–DNA hosts with applications for the encapsulation, sensing, modification and release of biomolecules and nanomaterials.

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Figure 1: Schematic representation of the construction of three-dimensional DNA prism TP and subsequent site-specific metallation.
Figure 2: Construction and site-specific metallation of the triangle T1.
Figure 3: Characterization of the triangular prism TP.
Figure 4: Characterization of the site-specific metallation of TP to form TP.M6.
Figure 5: Pre-metallation of T1 and T2 and their assembly into TP.Cu(I)6.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank NSERC, CFI, CSACS, CIHR and CIFAR for financial support, Jean-Pierre Sauvage for helpful discussion and J. Hedberg for help in preparing graphical illustrations. I.R. is recipient of a CIHR New Investigator award. G.D.H. thanks McGill University for a Tomlinson fellowship and C.K.M. thanks CIHR for a Chemical Biology scholarship. H.F.S. is a Cottrell Scholar of the Research Corporation.

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  1. Hua Yang and Christopher K. McLaughlin: Both authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, McGill University, 801 Sherbrooke St. West, Montreal, H3A 2K6, QC, Canada

    Hua Yang, Christopher K. McLaughlin, Faisal A. Aldaye, Graham D. Hamblin, Andrzej Z. Rys, Isabelle Rouiller & Hanadi F. Sleiman

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Contributions

H.F.S., H.Y., C.K.M. and F.A.A. designed the project. I.R., G.D.H. and C.K.M. collected and analysed electron microscope data. H.Y., C.K.M., G.D.H. and A.Z.R. primarily contributed to the production of experimental results. H.F.S., H.Y. and C.K.M. were primarily responsible for preparing the manuscript and all authors have agreed to the content of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Hanadi F. Sleiman.

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Yang, H., McLaughlin, C., Aldaye, F. et al. Metal–nucleic acid cages. Nature Chem 1, 390–396 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.290

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