Granted Patent B2

US 12,655,415 · App. 18/481,955 · Granted Jun 16, 2026

Inventors: Jinglin Fu (Tempe, AZ); Zhao Zhao (Boston, MA); Neal Woodbury (Tempe, AZ); Hao Yan (Chandler, AZ)

Assignee: ARIZONA BOARD OF REGENTS ON BEHALF OF ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY

C12N11/04C12N11/06C12N11/10C12N15/11B82Y5/00C12N2310/532

Abstract

Claims (27)

1 . A method of increasing the activity of an enzyme or antibody, the method comprising:

trapping an enzyme or antibody in a first open half cage comprising M13 viral DNA;

presenting a second open half cage which does not comprise an enzyme or antibody;

assembling the first and second open half cages into a closed nanocage having an inner cavity and nanopores;

wherein the inner cavity comprises the enzyme or antibody as a trapped enzyme or antibody respectively, and

wherein the enzyme or antibody is less than 465 kDa in size.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the activity is selected from increased catalytic activity, increased potency, or increased resistance to proteolytic digestion.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the activity is increased resistance to proteolytic digestion by trypsin.

4 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the increased resistance to proteolytic digestion is more than 95% of the initial activity of the enzyme or antibody after incubation with trypsin for 24 h relative to that of respective free enzyme or antibody.

5 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the increased catalytic activity is more than six-fold higher for the trapped enzyme or antibody relative to that of the respective free enzyme or antibody.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the trapped enzyme or antibody has a mean average cross-sectional size which is less than half the longest width of the inner cavity.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the closed nanocage comprises a plurality of structural members, each of which independently comprises all or a portion of M13 viral DNA, in a three-dimensional lattice,

wherein internal surfaces of the plurality of structural members form an inner cavity which is defined by at least three pairs of opposite walls,

wherein a first structural member of the plurality of structural members is linked to a second structural member of the plurality of structural members by short bridge DNA strands,

wherein the at least three pairs of opposite walls comprises a first pair, a second pair, and a third pair of opposite walls, and

wherein each of the first pair of opposite walls comprises a thickness which is different from the other pairs of opposite walls.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the nanocage comprises:

a plurality of structural members comprising a single-stranded circular DNA sequence selected from p7308, p7560, p7704, p8064, p8634, and pEGFP, wherein internal surfaces of the plurality of structural members form an inner cavity which is defined by at least three pairs of opposite walls, wherein architectural arrangement of the structural members in the three dimensional body forms an arrangement selected from the group consisting of a honeycomb lattice, a single-walled square lattice, and a double-walled square lattice, and

wherein the at least three pairs of opposite walls comprises a first pair, a second pair, and a third pair of opposite walls, and

wherein each of the first pair of opposite walls comprises a thickness which is different from the other pairs of opposite walls.

9 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the dimensions of the three dimensional body is less than 100 nm×100 nm×100 nm.

10 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the dimensions of the three dimensional body is less than 75 nm×50 nm×50 nm in size.

11 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the dimensions of the inner cavity of the three dimensional body is less than 50 nm×50 nm×50 nm.

12 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the three dimensional body further comprises at least one nanopore.

13 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the at least one nanopore has a diameter of about 1 nm to about 5 nm.

14 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the three dimensional body comprises between 0.10 to 0.30 DNA helices per nm 2 .

15 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the three dimensional body comprises between 0.11 to 0.17 DNA helices per nm 2 .

Assignments (1)

Continuity (4)

References Cited (82)