An Enzyme-Powered Three Dimensional DNA Nanomachine for DNA Walking, Payload Release, and Biosensing.

Herein, we report a DNA nanomachine, built from a DNA functionalized gold nanoparticle (DNA-AuNP), which moves a DNA walker along a three-dimensional (3-D) DNA-AuNP track and executes the task of releasing payloads. The movement of the DNA walker is powered by a nicking endonuclease that cleaves specific DNA substrates on the track. During the movement, each DNA walker cleaves multiple substrates, resulting in the rapid release of payloads (pre-designed DNA sequences and their conjugates). The 3-D DNA nanomachine is highly efficient due to the high local effective concentrations of all DNA components that have been co-conjugated on the same AuNP. Moreover, the activity of the 3-D DNA nanomachine can be controlled by introducing a protecting DNA probe that can hybridize to or dehybridize from the DNA walker in a target-specific manner. This property allows us to tailor the DNA nanomachine into a DNA nanosensor that is able to achieve rapid, isothermal, and homogeneous signal amplification for specific nucleic acids in both buffer and complicated bio-matrix.