Design and Characterization of pH-Triggered DNA Nanoswitches and Nanodevices Based on DNA Triplex Structures

Andrea Idili; Francesco Ricci

doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-8582-1_6

Design and Characterization of pH-Triggered DNA Nanoswitches and Nanodevices Based on DNA Triplex Structures

Methods Mol Biol. 2018:1811:79-100. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-8582-1_6.

Authors

Andrea Idili¹, Francesco Ricci²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.
² Department of Chemistry, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy. francesco.ricci@uniroma2.it.

PMID: 29926447
DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4939-8582-1_6

Abstract

Triplex DNA is becoming a very useful domain to design pH-triggered DNA nanoswitches and nanodevices. The high versatility and programmability of triplex DNA interactions allows the integration of pH-controllable modules into DNA-based reactions and self-assembly processes. Here, we describe the procedure to characterize DNA-based triplex nanoswitches and more in general pH-triggered structure-switching mechanisms. Procedures to characterize pH-triggered DNA nanodevices will be useful for many applications in the field of biosensing, drug delivery systems and smart nanomaterials.

Keywords: DNA nanostructures; Nanoswitches; Triple helix; pH switching.

MeSH terms

Biosensing Techniques
DNA / chemical synthesis*
DNA / chemistry
Drug Delivery Systems
Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
Models, Molecular
Nanostructures / chemistry*
Nanotechnology / instrumentation*
Nucleic Acid Conformation

Substances

triplex DNA
DNA