“It would be logical and useful to create an artificial life form that could become the enemy of pathogens,”
nanorobots loaded with drugs or diagnostic markers sent into the bodies of patients. Developing certain forms of artificial life, of nanometric size, thus promises multiple applications in health care, from detection and diagnosis to treatment and prevention.
Scientists from the University of Southern Denmark and the University of Kent, pioneers in the emerging field of peptide-DNA hybrid nanostructures, are already “the parents”
of a special artificial hybrid molecule that could lead to the creation of other forms of artificial life.
- The objective, initially, is to create viral vaccines artificial (based on attenuated or modified viruses) to diagnose and prevent diseases. They explain that in nature, most organisms have natural enemies, but some do not. For example, some pathogenic viruses do not have a natural enemy. It would therefore make sense to create an artificial life form that could become their enemy. Such artificial life forms could act as vaccines against viral infections. An artificial viral vaccine could thus be available within about 10 years.
- In a second step, the same technology could give rise to nanorobots loaded with drugs or diagnostic elements and injected into a patient’s body.
- The artificial cell constitutes a third objective, complex, it is made up of many elements that must be controlled before being able to start using them. But scientists are betting here that, with current knowledge, there is no obstacle on paper to the production of artificial cellular organisms.
What are the basic elements needed to create artificial life? Nature uses both DNA and peptides to build the various protein machineries found in cells that allow them to evolve into organisms.
DNA and peptides are among the most important biomolecules in nature,
which makes DNA technology (recombinant) and peptide technology (self-assembly) the 2 most powerful molecular tools in the current nanotechnology toolbox:
- DNA technology allows precise control of programming, from the atomic to the macro level, but can only program limited chemical functions since it has only four bases: A, C, G and T;
- Peptide technology, on the other hand, can enable sufficient chemical functions on a large scale, because there are 20 amino acids to work with.
First hybrid peptide-DNA nanostructures:
- The same team from the University of Kent recently succeeded in linking 3-stranded DNA structures with 3-stranded peptide structures and thus creating an artificial hybrid molecule that combines the properties of both types of biomolecules;
- Other teams are also working on connecting DNA and peptides, as this connection provides a solid basis for the development of more advanced biological entities and life forms:
- Thus, a team from the University of Oxford has just developed a nanomachine composed of DNA and peptides capable of piercing a cell membrane, thus creating an artificial membrane channel through which small molecules can pass. A well-known way to break the integrity of certain pathogens.
- A team from Arizona State University has developed a technique for self-assembling DNA and peptides into 2D and 3D structures;
- At Northwestern University (Chicago), researchers are producing microfibers in conjunction with the self-assembly of DNA and peptides;
- At Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, a team has used hybrid molecules to create a nanoscale spherical structure containing cancer drugs that could be used to target cancerous tumors.
Although this research may still seem very experimental, according to these experts, it gives a glimpse of the creation in the future of hybrid nanomachines or more broadly of artificial life forms which would allow humans and society to fight against the most difficult to treat diseases.
A revolution, very lasting because inexhaustible, in the field of health care.
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