A Cascaded DNA Nanocircuit for Multi‐Signal‐Responsive Precision siRNA Delivery in Cancer Therapy
Precision control over nucleic acid delivery remains a critical challenge in cancer therapy, particularly for siRNA-based gene silencing, where off-target effects limit clinical translation. Herein, we report a programmably engineered DNA nanocircuit with cascaded dual-AND logic gates, which enables the development of a spatiotemporally controlled siRNA delivery strategy for precision cancer therapy. The DNA nanocircuit is engineered to respond to three tumor-specific signals in a sequential manner: extracellular acidic pH, membrane-overexpressed nucleolin (NCL), and intracellular glutathione (GSH). The first AND gate is activated by the co-occurrence of acidic pH and NCL, triggering a conformational rearrangement that generates a molecular output. This integrated output, combined with intracellular GSH, serves as the dual input to co-activate the second AND gate, initiating siRNA release via a cascade reaction inherent to the DNA circuit. As a proof-of-concept, when harnessing this DNA circuit in a temozolomide (TMZ)-resistant glioblastoma (GBM) mouse model, we demonstrate that this design ensures highly selective release of siPARP1 in GBM cells, achieving efficient PARP1 silencing, reversed TMZ resistance, and minimized off-target toxicity. Collectively, the cascaded dual-AND logic, enabled by precise DNA sequence programming, represents a generalizable strategy for multi-signal-responsive delivery systems, highlighting the potential of DNA circuits in precision cancer therapy.
Authors
- Wanxia Lu
- Yuling Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1139-0855)
- Sungwook Jung (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8012-190X)
- Yan Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7474-3753)
- Xin Fu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-7478-0244)
- Jong Seung Kim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3477-1172)
- Yi Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2386-2741)
- Min-Goo Lee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2822-4973)
- Jinjun He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9568-3438)
- Haoxiang Chen
- Jinyue Fan
- Yueran Pan
- Eunji Kim
- Chao Zhang
- Yufei Lan
Institutions
- Sun Yat-sen University (CN)
- Korea University (KR)
- Shenzhen Bay Laboratory (CN)
- Zhujiang Hospital (CN)
- Southern Medical University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Science
- Published
- 2026-08-24
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.77332
- Primary Topic
- RNA Interference and Gene Delivery
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- National Research Foundation of Korea