An RNA-powered nanomotor, employed by researchers at the University of Cincinnati, can create an artificial pore in lipid membranes that is big enough to transmit DNA.

Lipid membranes, for example the ‘walls’ of cells, naturally have channels that selectively transmit materials. These channels are one of the ways in which organisms regulate the flow of nutrients, control chemicals, DNA and other vital materials of the metabolic cycle. The ability to create artificial channels (‘pores’) big enough to pass molecules as large as double-stranded DNA can lead to controlled loading of drugs, DNA, and other therapuetic material into the liposome (a vesicle in a cell membrane) and eventually through the cell membrane itself.

The study, led by biomedical engineering professor Peixuan Guo, PhD, started with modifying a virus that infects bacteria (a bacteriophage), which uses RNA to cross bacterial membranes to deliver the infecting DNA of the virus. The resulting RNA-nanomotor, only a few molecules in size, was then placed into a lipid sheet where it ‘punched a hole’ in the lipoprotein membrane.

Coauthors: David Wendell, PhD, Peng Jing, PhD, Jia Geng, Tae Jin Lee, Varuni Subramaniam.