MIL-101-NH₂-mediated nucleic acid delivery and gene silencing

Nucleic acids, including DNA and RNA, can participate in the regulation of gene expression in all organisms. However, those nucleic acid molecules are easily to be degraded. If they are directly administered orally or intravenously, their bioavailability is extremely low, so suitable carriers are required for intracellular delivery of nucleic acids. In this work, the iron-based metal-organic framework(MOF) MIL-101-NH2 with better biocompatibility is selected to carry single-stranded DNA and siRNA, and its intracellular behavior was explored. MIL-101-NH2can effectively deliver single-stranded DNA and siRNA into cells, and siRNA can escape from the lysosomes in cells and function as gene silencing reagent. Our results indicate that MIL-101-NH2-based nanocomposite is a promising strategy for nucleic acid delivery and gene regulation.