Activation of Multiple Functionalities Through Interacting Nanoparticles

Abstract Nucleic acids are biocompatible, robust, and highly versatile polymers that can be used to design fine-tunable and dynamically responsive nanostructures. In this report, we focus our attention to recently introduced concepts of interdependent, cognate nucleic acid nanoparticles assembly that take advantage of dynamic interactions and consequent shape-switching to trigger the activation of multiple functionalities. Particularly, we discuss re-association of thermodynamically driven complementary nanocubes (“cube” and complementary “anti-cube”) into functional duplexes that do not require toehold interactions or extensive computational design, bringing a new perspective for utility of nucleic acid nanoparticles as a drug carriers, biosensors, and templates for the formation of siRNA duplexes.