Novel DNA nanopores can open and close on demand for controlled drug delivery

Scientists at TU Delft and the Max Planck Institute have made a new class of structurally adaptable 'mechanical' pores made from DNA that can transport molecules through cell membranes.

These innovative nanopores can open and close on demand and, for the first time, adjust their diameter.

This offers new possibilities for biomedical applications, including controlled and size-selective delivery of macromolecules. The results have been published in Advanced Materials.

Ze Yu, postdoc in Sabina Caneva's group and co-first author of the publication, explains that DNA origami nanopores are widely used in biophysics and biotechnology to analyze protein shapes and compositions. However, traditional pores are too narrow for macromolecules such as therapeutics to pass through, and the pores are constantly open, which is not ideal for targeted drug delivery.

Caneva and her team, in collaboration with the Heuer-Jungmann lab at Max Plack Institute of Biochemistry, have designed and developed nanopores with a wider opening of 30 nanometers (MechanoPores), instead of the usual 4–5 nanometers.

According to Yu, this is the first nanopore that can reversibly adopt three different diameters and can therefore select molecules based on size.

Image source: TU Delft.