DNA tetrahedron nanostructure (DTN) is one of the simplest DNA nanostructures and has been successfully applied for biosensing, imaging, and treatment of cancer. To facilitate its biomedical applications and potential clinical translation, fundamental understanding of DTN's transportation among major organs in living organisms becomes increasingly important. Here, we describe the efficient renal clearance of DTN in healthy mice by using positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. The kidney elimination of DTN was later applied for renal function evaluation in murine models of unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO). We further established a mathematical program of DTN to validate its changes of transportation pattern in healthy and UUO mice. We believe the establishment of pharmacokinetic profiles and mathematical model of DTN may provide insight for future optimization of DNA nanostructures for biomedical applications.

Multifunctional yolk/shell-structured hybrid nanomaterials have attracted increasing interest as theranostic nanoplatforms for cancer imaging and therapy. However, because of the lack of suitable surface engineering and tumor targeting strategies, previous research has focused mainly on nanostructure design and synthesis with few successful examples showing active tumor targeting after systemic administration. In this study, we report the general synthetic strategy of chelator-free zirconium-89 (⁸⁹Zr)-radiolabeled, TRC105 antibody-conjugated, silica-based yolk/shell hybrid nanoparticles for in vivo tumor vasculature targeting. Three types of inorganic nanoparticles with varying morphologies and sizes were selected as the internal cores, which were encapsulated into single hollow mesoporous silica nanoshells to form the yolk/shell-structured hybrid nanoparticles. As a proof-of-concept, we demonstrated successful surface functionalization of the nanoparticles with polyethylene glycol, TRC105 antibody (specific for CD105/endoglin), and ⁸⁹Zr (a positron-emitting radioisotope), and enhanced in vivo tumor vasculature-targeted positron emission tomography imaging in 4T1 murine breast tumor-bearing mice. This strategy could be applied to the synthesis of other types of yolk/shell theranostic nanoparticles for tumor-targeted imaging and drug delivery.