The development of systems able to deliver genetic material into a target site is a challenge for modern medicine. Single-stranded peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) have attracted attention as promising therapeutic molecules for diagnostic and gene therapy. However, their poor cell membrane permeability represents a drawback for biomedical applications. In the years, to overcome these problems, several systems have been used as PNA carriers. Recently, among them, clay minerals could represent an efficient alternative to conventional nanomaterials due to their intrinsic properties and capability to across cellular membrane, localizing themselves in the cytoplasmatic area [1]. Halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) are a class of aluminosilicate clay mineral, belonging to the kaolin group, that have shown interesting features for application in biotechnology [2]. HNTs possess a different chemical composition and different charges of surfaces (positively charged in the lumen, rich in Al-OH groups and negatively charged on the external surface constated by Si-O-Si groups) that allow their chemical modification, both covalent and supramolecular. Herein we report the synthesis and characterization of nanosystems based on PNA molecules loaded onto HNTs by different synthetic strategy to develop nanomaterials for the delivery of genetic material into cells [3]. Firstly, the supramolecular loading of differently charged PNA tetramers, as models, was investigated. Similarly, the same PNA tetramer was covalently grafted onto HNTs external surface to obtain a carrier system for the potential targeting of future specific nucleic acids in living cells.

Presentación oral presentada en EUROCLAY 2023: International Conference of European Clay Groups Association. 24-27 July, 2023 Bari (Italy)