Advances of DNA-based nanomaterials in tumor therapy

Antitumor drugs usually have deficiencies such as poor water solubility, low targeting, poor stability, and difficulty in being taken up by tumor cells. The development of an ideal drug delivery vehicle is still an urgent problem to be solved in the field of cancer therapy. Due to their excellent sequence programmability, biocompatibility and biodegradability, DNA-based nanomaterials have been widely used as drug delivery vehicles for cancer treatment. Numerous studies have shown that DNA nanomaterials can effectively load cancer therapeutic agents, and achieve tumor targeted delivery, efficient cellular internalization as well as stimuli-responsive drug release. Starting from the history and development of DNA nanotechnology, this review illustrates the application progress of DNA nanomaterial as drug delivery vehicle in chemotherapy, gene therapy, immunotherapy and photodynamic therapy, and the future development is prospected so as to provide some reference for other researchers in this field.