L-DNA linear duplex: An efficient drug delivery carrier with a simple structure

Abstract

Three dimensional DNA nanostructures are often limited in scalability due to low assembly yield at high concentrations, leaving themselves less suitable for industrial uses. To overcome this drawback, we here employed L-DNA duplex (L-ds) as a drug carrier. Due to its simple structure, L-ds can easily be prepared at micromolar concentrations without causing any considerable by-product, providing sufficient scalability for practical development. With sufficient cellular uptake efficiency in SCC7 cells and the tumor accumulation level in a SCC7-tumor xenograft mouse model, L-ds could well be utilized as a carrier for intracellular and tumor delivery of an anticancer agent, providing substantial cytotoxicity and inhibition of tumor growth, respectively.