New Super Molecule - Will Revolutionize Science!

Not only science but society was revolutionized when scientists discovered DNA and learned how to control it
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Today, researchers and the medical industry routinely create artificial DNA structures for many purposes, including disease diagnosis and treatment

Now, an international team of researchers reports that they have created a powerful supramolecular that has the potential to revolutionize science even further
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The research was published in the journal Nature Communications
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The authors are from the University of Southern Denmark (Denmark), Kent State University (USA), University of Copenhagen (Denmark), University of Oxford (UK) and ATDBio (UK)

Next Generation Nanotechnology

The researchers describe their supramolecules as a combination of DNA and a peptide
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DNA is one of the most important biomolecules, as are polypeptides; polypeptide structures are used to create artificial proteins and various nanostructures
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"If you combine the two, as we've already done, you get a very powerful molecular tool that could lead to the next generation of nanotechnology; it could allow us to make more advanced nanostructures such as , used to detect diseases
," said corresponding author Chengguang Lou, associate professor at the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Southern Denmark
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Causes of Alzheimer's disease

In another example, according to the researchers, the binding of this peptide to DNA could be used to create artificial proteins that are more stable and therefore more reliable than natural proteins
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Natural proteins are susceptible to heat, UV light, chemical reagents, and other factors

"Our next step will be to investigate whether it can be used to explain the cause of Alzheimer's disease, in which a dysfunctional peptide is the culprit," said Hanbin Mao, another corresponding author and a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Kent State University
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The research work reports the mechanical properties of a new structure consisting of a three-stranded DNA structure and a three-stranded peptide structure
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This may sound simple, but it is far from the truth

essentially left and right

The article notes that it is rare for DNA and peptide structures to be chemically linked together like this
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In nature, they often behave like cats and dogs, although some key interactions are essential to any living being
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One possible reason is their chirality, sometimes called chirality

All biological structures, from molecules to the human body, have fixed chirality; think of our heart, which is always on the left side of our body
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DNA is always right-handed, and peptides are always left-handed, so trying to combine them is an extremely challenging task

Change from left to right

"Imagine you want to stack two hands, with both palms facing the same direction and fingers aligned
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You'll see that's not possible

That's what the research team did: trick the chirality
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They changed the chirality of the peptide from left to right, so it matched the chirality of the DNA and worked with it, rather than repelling it

" This is the first study to show that DNA and peptide structures can communicate and interact when their chirality changes
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So why do we have left and right hands?

For the first time, researchers have an answer to why the biological world is chiral:

"The answer is energy: the chiral world requires the lowest energy to maintain, so it is the most stable," said Hanbin Mao
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In other words: nature always seeks to spend as little energy as possible
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Magazine

Nature Communications

DOI

10.
1038/s41467-021-27708-4