Professor Fei Peng of Sun Yat-sen University and Professor Yingfeng Tu of Southern Medical University have constructed a DNase-functionalized Janus Nanoparticle JNP nanomotor system for the first time, which can be powered by extremely low levels nM to μM of DNA.
The system will show significant chemotactic behavior to DNA-rich regions, which has a good physiological correlation with many diseases including tumors. In the presence of a DNA gradient generated by apoptotic tumor cells, nanomotors can sense the DNA signals released by the cells and show a directional movement that tends to tumor cells. Experimental results show that the fine DNA gradient of a small amount 10 μL of tumor cells is sufficient to induce the chemotactic behavior of the nanomotor systems self-navigation and self-targeting capabilities, which is expected to provide a new reference for tumor diagnosis and treatment.

Yicheng Ye. et al. Apoptotic Tumor DNA Activated Nanomotor Chemotaxis. Nano Letters. 2021

DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c02441