Читать книгу DNA Origami - Группа авторов - Страница 59

Mechanobiology is a growing field [26–28]. The development of DNA origami nanostructures capable of actuation can be a valuable tool to explore the response of biological materials, cells, and tissues respond to applied, controlled forces. In this work, we proposed and validated by in silico experiments a wireframe barrel‐like structure to pull on mechanosensitive receptors, using ssDNA as entropic springs. The rational design of the structure was based on previous models of the mechanical properties of ssDNA and dsDNA. We showed how, using prestressed ssDNA segments, it might be possible to store mechanical energy and release it after the occurrence of a stimulus. We used the force package of the oxDNA simulation software to evaluate the force created by this structure. From our coarse‐grained simulations, the force created by the structure is of the same order of magnitude of the calculated force. We showed that oxDNA, in combination with vHelix, is a powerful and versatile tool that can be used for in silico screening of DNA nanostructure with different mechanical attributes and to test these design, like already demonstrated by studies on rigidity refinement of DNA nanostructures [57, 58].