Reciprocal Self-Assembly of Peptide–DNA Conjugates into a Programmable Sub-10-nm Supramolecular Deoxyribonucleoprotein

To overcome the limitations of molecular assemblies, the development of novel supramolecular building blocks and self-assembly modes is essential to create more sophisticated, complex, and controllable aggregates. The self-assembly of peptide–DNA conjugates (PDCs), in which two orthogonal self-assembly modes, that is, β-sheet formation and Watson–Crick base pairing, are covalently combined in one supramolecular system, is reported. Despite extensive research, most self-assembly studies have focused on using only one type of building block, which restricts structural and functional diversity compared to multicomponent systems. Multicomponent systems, however, suffer from poor control of self-assembly behaviors. Covalently conjugated PDC building blocks are shown to assemble into well-defined and controllable nanostructures. This controllability likely results from the decrease in entropy associated with the restriction of the molecular degrees of freedom by the covalent constraints. Using this strategy, the possibility to thermodynamically program nano-assemblies to exert gene regulation activity with low cytotoxicity is demonstrated.