Christin Möser

Fraunhofer-Institut für Zelltherapie und Immunologie IZI, Leipzig, Germany

Nanotechnology Session, Friday, October, 1st, 2021, 01:30pm – 03:00pm

Evaluating the Binding of DNA-Based Synthetic Antibodies to surface receptors via flow cytometry

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) nanostructures enable the attachment of functional molecules to nearly any unique location on their underlying structure. Due to their single-base-pair structural resolution, several ligands can be spatially arranged and closely controlled according to the geometry of their desired target, resulting in optimized binding and/or signaling interactions. Here, functionalized DNA nanostructures were used as “synthetic antibodies” to target the cell surface receptor EphA2. EphA2 receptors are widely overexpressed in many cancer types, however, they are able to act as tumor suppressors when the signaling ability is activated by ephrin ligands. After conjugating DNA trimers to up to three ephrin peptide ligands, specific binding to EphA2 receptor expressing cells was evaluated in flow cytometry experiments. The results obtained in this work prove the capability of DNA nanostructures to serve as stable, controllable platforms for the oligovalent presentation of functional ligands.