Abstract
Thrombosis is a leading global cause of death, in part due to the low efficacy of thrombolytic therapy. Here, we describe a method for precise delivery and accurate dosing of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) using an intelligent DNA nanodevice. We use DNA origami to integrate DNA nanosheets with predesigned tPA binding sites and thrombin-responsive DNA fasteners. The fastener is an interlocking DNA triplex structure that acts as a thrombin recognizer, threshold controller and opening switch. When loaded with tPA and intravenously administrated in vivo, these DNA nanodevices rapidly target the site of thrombosis, track the circulating microemboli and expose the active tPA only when the concentration of thrombin exceeds a threshold. We demonstrate their improved therapeutic efficacy in ischaemic stroke and pulmonary embolism models, supporting the potential of these nanodevices to provide accurate tPA dosing for the treatment of different thromboses.
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Data availability
All the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its supplementary information files and from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Source data are provided with this paper.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, major project (BK20212012 (L.W.)), the NSFC (62288102 (L.W.), 21922408 (J.C.), 22274081 (J.C.), 22277058 (Y.G.), 21991134 (C.F.), T2188102 (C.F.)), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BE2023839 (J.C.)), and the New Cornerstone Science Foundation (C.F.).
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J.C., Y.G. and L.W. conceived the project. J.C., Y.G., J.Y., S.W., and J.W. designed the experiments. J.Y., S.W. and J.W. carried out the experiments. S.W., J.W. and Y.Z. performed the in vivo experiments. J.Y., S.W., J.W., J.C. and Y.G. collected and analysed the data. Y.G., J.C., J.Y., S.W., C.F. and L.W. wrote the manuscript. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.
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Nature Materials thanks Guangjun Nie, Hao Yan and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
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Yin, J., Wang, S., Wang, J. et al. An intelligent DNA nanodevice for precision thrombolysis. Nat. Mater. 23, 854–862 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-024-01826-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-024-01826-y