Marker-dependent cleavage of RNA by binary (split) DNAzyme (BiDz) and binary DNA machines (biDNM).

Oligonucleotide gene therapy (OGT) can be used to suppress specific RNA in cells and thus have been explored for gene therapy. Despite extensive effort, there is no clinically significant OGT for treating cancer. Low efficiency of OGT is one of the problems. Earlier, we proposed to address this problem by suppressing most vital genes in cancer cells e.g. housekeeping genes. To achieve specific activation of the OGT agents in cancer but not in normal cells, we designed binary (split) DNAzyme (BiDz), which is activated by cancer-related nucleic acid sequences. This work is devoted to BiDz optimization using cancer marker-related sequence as an activator and three folded RNA targets. To achieve efficient binding of folded RNA, the BiDz design was equipped with RNA binding/unwinding arms, a construction that was dabbed 'BiDz machines' (BiDM). BiDM was designed to have improved both iRNA cleavage rates and RNA recognition in comparison with BiDz. Further development of DNA nanotechnology-inspired agents can advance OGT technology in treating cancer, viral infections, and genetic disorders.