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Our society was revolutionized when scientists discovered DNA and learned how to control it. However, the researchers and medical industry are randomly creating artificial DNA structures for different purposes such as diagnosis and treatment of diseases. An international research team has now reported that they describe the creation of a powerful supermolecule as a marriage between DNA and peptides. The research work was also published in Nature Communications. Moreover, the researchers are from the University of Southern Denmark, Kent State University, Copenhagen University, Oxford University, and ATDBio. Lead researchers are Chenguang Lou from the University of Southern Denmark and Hanbin Mao from Kent State University. They described that DNA is an important biomolecule and peptide. Point to be noted that peptide structures are used to create artificial proteins and nanostructures.

Chenguang Lou said, “If you combine these two, as we have, you get a very powerful molecular tool, that may lead to the next generation of nanotechnology; it may allow us to make more advanced nanostructures, for example, for detecting diseases”. The researchers said this marriage of peptides to DNA can be used to create artificial proteins that are more stable and more reliable to work with compared to natural proteins, which are vulnerable to heat, ultraviolet radiation, and chemical reagents. Hanbin Mao said, “Our next step will be to investigate whether it can be used to explain the cause of Alzheimer’s disease, in which malfunctioning peptides are culprits”. The research also said the mechanical properties of a new structure composed of 3 stranded DNA structures and 3 stranded peptide structures.

The research also indicated that DNA and peptide structures are chemically linked like this new structure. They often naturally behave like cats and dogs, but some key interactions are important to any living organisms. One possible reason for this is their so-called chirality, sometimes also described as handedness. All biological structures from molecules to the human body have a fixed chirality. DNA is always right-handed and peptides are always left-handed, so trying to combine them is a highly challenging task. Hanbin added, “Imagine you want to stack your two hands by matching each finger while both palms face the same direction. You will find out it is impossible to do it. You can only do this if you can trick your two hands into having the same chirality”.