Mimicking enzyme function and increasing performance of naturally evolved proteins is one of the most challenging and intriguing aims of nanoscience. Here, we employ DNA nanotechnology to design a synthetic enzyme that substantially outperforms its biological archetypes. Consisting of only eight strands, our DNA nanostructure spontaneously inserts into biological membranes by forming a toroidal pore that connects the membrane's inner and outer leaflets. The membrane insertion catalyzes spontaneous transport of lipid molecules between the bilayer leaflets, rapidly equilibrating the lipid composition. Through a combination of microscopic simulations and fluorescence microscopy we find the lipid transport rate catalyzed by the DNA nanostructure exceeds 10⁷ molecules per second, which is three orders of magnitude higher than the rate of lipid transport catalyzed by biological enzymes. Furthermore, we show that our DNA-based enzyme can control the composition of human cell membranes, which opens new avenues for applications of membrane-interacting DNA systems in medicine.

中文翻译：

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由DNA构建的合成酶每秒可在生物膜中翻转107个脂质。

模仿酶的功能并提高天然进化蛋白的性能是纳米科学最具挑战性和最有趣的目标之一。在这里，我们采用DNA纳米技术来设计一种合成酶，其性能远胜于其生物学原型。我们的DNA纳米结构仅由8条链组成，通过形成连接膜的内部和外部小叶的环形孔，自发地插入生物膜中。膜插入催化双层小叶之间脂质分子的自发运输，从而快速平衡脂质组成。通过显微镜模拟和荧光显微镜的结合，我们发现由DNA纳米结构催化的脂质转运速率超过10 ^7。分子每秒，比生物酶催化的脂质转运速率高三个数量级。此外，我们证明基于DNA的酶可以控制人细胞膜的组成，这为膜相互作用DNA系统在医学中的应用开辟了新途径。