Acidic microenvironment triggered <i>in situ</i> assembly of activatable three-arm aptamer nanoclaw for contrast-enhanced imaging and tumor growth inhibition <i>in vivo</i>
Jin Huang, Yuchen Wu, Hui He, Wenjie Ma, Jianbo Liu, Hong Cheng, Huanhuan Sun, Xiaoxiao He, Kemin Wang
Abstract
RATIONALE: Static assembled multivalent DNA nanotheranostics system have encountered some bottleneck problems in cancer imaging and therapy, such as poor penetration and high immunogenicity. Herein, we proposed an acidic tumor microenvironment triggered assembly of activatable multivalent nanodevice, called "three-arm aptamer nanoclaw" (TA-aptNC), assembled from three pH-responsive aptamer-decorated DNA monomers (pH-aptDMs) to facilitate their functions of imaging and therapy. METHODS: : The proposed strategy offers valuable insight into excavating an endogenous stimuli-triggered assembly of multivalent nanodevice for accurate diagnosis and efficient tumor therapy.