Application of nucleic acid-lipid conjugates for the programmable organisation of liposomal modules

摘要

Wepresent a critical review of recentwork related to the assembly of multicompartment liposomeclusters using nucleic acids as a specific recognition unit to link liposomalmodules. The asymmetry in nucleic acid binding to its non-self complementary strand allows the controlled association of different compartmentalmodules into composite systems. These biomimetic multicompartment architectures could have future applications in chemical process control, drug delivery and synthetic biology. We assess the different methods of anchoring DNA to lipid membrane surfaces and discuss how lipid and DNA properties can be tuned to control the morphology and properties of liposome superstructures. We consider different methods for chemical communication between the contents of liposomal compartments within these clusters and assess the progress towards making this chemical mixing efficient, switchable and chemically specific. Finally, given the current state of the art, we assess the outlook for future developments towards functional modular networks of liposomes.