Spherical nucleic acids (SNAs) are nanostructures that consist of a densely packed, highly oriented arrangement of linear nucleic acids in a three-dimensional, spherical geometry. This novel three-dimensional architecture is responsible for many of the SNA's novel chemical, biological, and physical properties that make it useful in biomedicine and materials synthesis. SNAs were first introduced in 1996 by Chad Mirkin's group at Northwestern University.
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Spherical nucleic acids in the context of Polyvalency (chemistry)
In chemistry, polyvalency (or polyvalence, multivalency) is the property of molecules and larger species, such as antibodies, medical drugs, and even nanoparticles surface-functionalized with ligands, like spherical nucleic acids, that exhibit more than one supramolecular interaction. For the number of chemical bonds of atoms, the term "valence" is used (Fig. 1). For both atoms and larger species, the number of bonds may be specified: divalent species can form two bonds; a trivalent species can form three bonds; and so on.
Species that have polyvalency usually show enhanced or cooperative binding compared to their monovalent counterparts. Nanoparticles with multiple nucleic acid strands on their surfaces (e.g., DNA) can form multiple bonds with one another by DNA hybridization to form hierarchical assemblies, some of which are highly crystalline in nature.
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