Preparation of Chemically Modified RNA Origami Nanostructures

Abstract

In nucleic acid nanotechnology, designed RNA molecules are widely explored because of their usability originating from RNA's structural and functional diversity. Herein, a method to design and prepare RNA nanostructures by employing DNA origami strategy was developed. A single-stranded RNA scaffold and staple RNA strands were used for the formation of RNA nanostructures. After the annealing of the mixtures, 7-helix bundled RNA tile and 6-helix bundled RNA tube structures were observed as predesigned shapes. These nanostructures were easily functionalized by introducing chemical modification to the RNA scaffolds. The DNA origami method is extended and utilized to construct RNA nanostructures.