Abstract 828: DNA origami nanostructures as a targeted payload delivery system
Authors: Halley Patrick , Roki Niksa , Vantangoli Nicholas , Zupancic Tom , Spitzner Jeff , Long Meixiao , Larkin Karilyn Karilyn , Byrd John , Castro Carlos , Lucas Chris R. 
Published: April 2023

DNA origami is a platform nanotechnology allows for the generation of nanostructures with precisely defined geometric shape that may be easily functionalized with a variety of payloads for therapeutic delivery. These payloads include nucleic acids (miRNA, siRNA, gene sequences), associated Cas protein molecules, therapeutic small molecules drugs, functional peptides (adjuvants or cell penetrating peptides), and incorporated targeting and/or therapeutic antibodies. Hence, DNA origami is a highly promising vehicle to deliver targeted therapeutic payloads to cancer cells or other diseases. Previous studies by our laboratory and others revealed DNA origami mediated drug delivery efficiently delivered daunorubicin or doxorubicin to cancer cells while outperforming free drug in both solid and liquid tumor model systems in vitro and in vivo. Our recent findings showed significant survival advantage by doxorubicin-loaded DNA origami over delivery of free doxorubicin in an aggressive, acute monocytic leukemia model. We also showed antibody-directed drug delivery by DNA origami may be directly targeted to monocytic leukemia cells expressing the target surface antigen, and superior efficacy in vitro against acute myeloid leukemia cells when loaded with daunorubicin relative to free drug at low concentrations. Thus, antibody targeted drug loaded DNA origami represent a promising novel precision medicine approach. Additionally, recent findings by our laboratory in vivo determined that DNA origami nanostructures alone administered at high dose (12.0mg/kg) distribute well, are non-toxic, and illicit mild immunogenicity, making them an attractive candidate for further development towards therapeutic applications. We recently developed a DNA origami structure functionalized at a high density with adjuvant (CpG) and antigenic peptides (OVA) to stimulate a directed antigen-specific immune response. We have shown this DNA origami vaccine platform displays significant improvement in efficacy by an OVA-pulsed antigen-killing assay in vivo relative to alum and CFA standard adjuvant formulations. Thus, our DNA origami vaccine platform represents a promising novel approach to optimize an anti-cancer immune response, a finding also shown by other laboratories.Collectively, DNA Nanobot technology offers 1) a promising a cancer drug delivery system that can deliver a high number of therapeutic drugs (100s of drug molecules per targeted delivery system) utilizing existing ADC conjugation methods; 2) An optimal vaccine delivery method to enhance efficacy; and 3) cell specific targeted delivery of therapeutic nucleic acids and genes to modify oncogene and/or tumor suppressor gene expression.

Citation Format: Patrick Halley, Niksa Roki, Nicholas Vantangoli, Tom Zupancic, Jeff Spitzner, Meixiao Long, Karilyn Karilyn Larkin, John Byrd, Carlos Castro, Chris R. Lucas. DNA origami nanostructures as a targeted payload delivery system [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 828.