Evanston, IL (Scicasts) – Northwestern University’s
Chad A. Mirkin, a world-renowned leader in nanotechnology research and
its application, has invented and developed a powerful material that
could revolutionize biomedicine: spherical nucleic acids (SNAs).
Potential applications include using SNAs to carry nucleic acid-based
therapeutics to the brain for the treatment of glioblastoma, the most
aggressive form of brain cancer, as well as other neurological disorders
such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Mirkin is aggressively
pursuing treatments for such diseases with Alexander H. Stegh, an
assistant professor of neurology at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of
Medicine.
“These structures are really quite spectacular and incredibly
functional,” Mirkin said. “People don’t typically think about DNA in
spherical form, but this novel arrangement of nucleic acids imparts
interesting chemical and physical properties that are very different
from conventional nucleic acids.”
Spherical nucleic acids consist of densely packed, highly oriented
nucleic acids arranged on the surface of a nanoparticle, typically gold
or silver. The tiny non-toxic balls, each roughly 15 nanometres in
diameter, can do things the familiar but more cumbersome double helix
can’t do:
- SNAs can naturally enter cells and effect gene knockdown, making
SNAs a superior tool for treating genetic diseases using gene regulation
technology.
- SNAs can easily cross formidable barriers in the human body, including the blood-brain barrier and the layers that make up skin.
- SNAs don’t elicit an immune response, and they resist degradation, resulting in longer lifetimes in the body.
“The field of medicine needs new constructs and strategies for
treating disease,” Mirkin said. “Many of the ways we treat disease are
based on old methods and materials. Nanotechnology offers the ability to
rapidly create new structures with properties that are very different
from conventional forms of matter.”
Mirkin is the George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry in the
Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and professor of medicine,
chemical and biological engineering, biomedical engineering and
materials science and engineering. He is director of Northwestern’s
International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN).
Last year, Mirkin and Dr. Amy S. Paller, chair of dermatology and
professor of paediatrics at Feinberg, were the first to demonstrate the
use of commercial moisturizers to deliver gene regulation technology for
skin cancer therapy. The drug, consisting of SNAs, penetrated the
skin’s layers and selectively targeted disease-causing genes while
sparing normal genes.
Image: Courtesy of Northwestern University
“We now can go after a whole new set of diseases,” Mirkin said.
“Thanks to the Human Genome Project and all of the genomics research
over the last two decades, we have an enormous number of known targets.
And we can use the same tool for each, the spherical nucleic acid. We
simply change the sequence to match the target gene. That’s the power of
gene regulation technology.”
A member of President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and
Technology, Mirkin is known for invention and development of biological
and chemical diagnostic systems based upon nanomaterials. He is the
inventor and chief developer of Dip-Pen Nanolithography, a
groundbreaking nanoscale fabrication and analytical tool, and is the
founder of four Chicago-based companies: AuraSense, AuraSense
Therapeutics, Nanosphere and NanoInk.
Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease.