Chemists use DNA to build the world's tiniest antenna

Date:
January 10, 2022
Source:
University of Montreal
Summary:
An easy-to-use device promises to help scientists better understand
natural and human-designed nanotechnologies -- and identify
new drugs.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Researchers at Universite' de Montre'al have created a nanoantenna to
monitor the motions of proteins. Reported this week in Nature Methods,
the device is a new method to monitor the structural change of proteins
over time -- and may go a long way to helping scientists better understand natural and human-designed nanotechnologies.


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"The results are so exciting that we are currently working on setting up
a start-up company to commercialize and make this nanoantenna available
to most researchers and the pharmaceutical industry," said UdeM chemistry professor Alexis Valle'e-Be'lisle, the study's senior author.

An antenna that works like a two-way radio Over 40 years ago, researchers invented the first DNA synthesizer to create molecules that encode genetic information. "In recent years, chemists have realized that DNA can also
be employed to build a variety of nanostructures and nanomachines,"
added the researcher, who also holds the Canada Research Chair in Bioengineering and Bionanotechnology.

"Inspired by the 'Lego-like' properties of DNA, with building blocks that
are typically 20,000 times smaller than a human hair, we have created a DNA-based fluorescent nanoantenna, that can help characterize the function
of proteins." he said "Like a two-way radio that can both receive and
transmit radio waves, the fluorescent nanoantenna receives light in one
colour, or wavelength, and depending on the protein movement it senses,
then transmits light back in another colour, which we can detect."
One of the main innovations of these nanoantennae is that the receiver
part of the antenna is also employed to sense the molecular surface of
the protein studied via molecular interaction.



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One of the main advantages of using DNA to engineer these nanoantennas
is that DNA chemistry is relatively simple and programmable," said
Scott Harroun, an UdeM doctoral student in chemistry and the study's
first author.

"The DNA-based nanoantennas can be synthesized with different lengths
and flexibilities to optimize their function," he said. "One can easily
attach a fluorescent molecule to the DNA, and then attach this fluorescent nanoantenna to a biological nanomachine, such as an enzyme.

"By carefully tuning the nanoantenna design, we have created five
nanometer- long antenna that produces a distinct signal when the protein
is performing its biological function." Fluorescent nanoantennas open
many exciting avenues in biochemistry and nanotechnology, the scientists believe.

"For example, we were able to detect, in real time and for the first
time, the function of the enzyme alkaline phosphatase with a variety of biological molecules and drugs," said Harroun. "This enzyme has been
implicated in many diseases, including various cancers and intestinal inflammation.



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"In addition to helping us understand how natural nanomachines function
or malfunction, consequently leading to disease, this new method can also
help chemists identify promising new drugs as well as guide nanoengineers
to develop improved nanomachines," added Dominic Lauzon, a co-author of
the study doing his PhD in chemistry at UdeM.

One main advance enabled by these nanoantennas is also their ease-of-use,
the scientists said.

"Perhaps what we are most excited by is the realization that many labs
around the world, equipped with a conventional spectrofluorometer, could readily employ these nanoantennas to study their favourite protein,
such as to identify new drugs or to develop new nanotechnologies,"
said Valle'e-Be'lisle.

"Monitoring protein conformational change using fluorescent nanoantennas,"
by Alexis Valle'e-Be'lisle et al, was published in Dec 30th, 2021
in Nature Methods.Funding was provided by the Natural Sciences and
Engineering Research Council of Canada; the Fonds de recherche du Que'bec
-- Nature et technologies; Canada Research Chairs; the Quebec Network
for Research on Protein Function, Engineering, and Applications; and Universite' de Montre'al.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Montreal. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Related Multimedia:
* Fluorescent_nanoantenna ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Scott G. Harroun, Dominic Lauzon, Maximilian C. C. J. C. Ebert,
Arnaud
Desrosiers, Xiaomeng Wang, Alexis Valle'e-Be'lisle. Monitoring
protein conformational changes using fluorescent
nanoantennas. Nature Methods, 2021 DOI: 10.1038/s41592-021-01355-5 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220110103320.htm
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