The creation of artificial life is a recurring theme in both science and popular literature, conjuring images of malevolent crawling slugs or super-cute designer pets. At the same time, the question arises: What should be the role of artificial life in our environment on Earth, where all life forms are created by nature and have a place and purpose?
Associate Professor Chengguan Lu from the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy at the University of Southern Denmark, together with Professor Hanbin Mao from Kent State University, are the parents of a special artificial hybrid molecule that could lead to the creation of artificial life forms. They published an overview of the state of research in the field underlying their creation in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science. This field is called “hybrid peptide-DNA nanostructures” and is a new field with less than 10 years of history.
Lu’s goal is to create viral vaccines (modified and weakened versions of the virus) and artificial life forms that can be used to diagnose and treat diseases.
“Most organisms in nature have natural enemies, but some do not. For example, some disease-causing viruses do not have natural enemies. The logical step would be to create an artificial life form that can be their enemy,” he said.
He also suggests that such artificial life forms could serve as vaccines against viral infection and could be used as nanorobots or nanomachines loaded with drugs or diagnostics and delivered into the patient’s body.
“An artificial viral vaccine could emerge in about 10 years. The artificial cell, on the other hand, is very soon because it consists of many elements that need to be checked before starting to build. “In principle, there are no obstacles to the creation of artificial cellular organisms in the future,” he says.
What building blocks will Lu and his colleagues in the field use to create viral vaccines and artificial life? DNA and peptides are among the most important biomolecules in nature, making DNA technology and peptide technology two of the most powerful molecular tools in today’s nanotechnology toolbox.
DNA technology provides precise control over programming from the atomic level to the macro level, but can only perform limited chemical functions because it has only four bases: A, C, G, and T. Peptide technology, on the other hand, can provide enough chemicals to function on a large scale because 20 You need to work with amino acid. Nature uses DNA and peptides to create the various protein factories found in cells that enable them to develop into organisms.
Recently, Hanbin Mao and Chengguang Lu succeeded in combining designed three-stranded DNA structures with three-stranded peptide structures, thus creating an artificial hybrid molecule that combines the strengths of both. This study was published in the journal Nature Communications in 2022.
Other researchers in other countries around the world are also working on the combination of DNA and peptides, as this connection provides a solid basis for the development of more modern biological objects and life forms.
Researchers at the University of Oxford have managed to create a nanomachine made of DNA and peptides that can penetrate the cell membrane, creating an artificial membrane channel through which small molecules can pass.
Nicholas Stephanopoulos of Arizona State University and his colleagues allowed DNA and peptides to self-assemble into 2D and 3D structures.
Researchers from Northwestern University have shown that microfibers can be formed by the self-assembly of DNA and peptides. DNA and peptides work at the nanoscale, so microfibers are very large considering the size difference.
Scientists at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev used hybrid molecules to create a spherical bulb-like structure containing cancer drugs that promise to be used to fight cancer in the body.
“In my view, the overall value of all these efforts is that they can be used to improve society’s ability to diagnose and treat sick people. Looking to the future, we look to the future to one day arbitrarily develop hybrid nanomachines, virus vaccines, or even this structure to help society fight these difficult-to-treat diseases.” “I wouldn’t be surprised if we could create artificial life forms from its stones. This would be a revolution in healthcare,” says Chengguan Lu. Source
Source: Port Altele
