Hybridization chain reaction-based DNA nanomaterials for biosensing, bioimaging and therapeutics

DNA nanomaterials hold great promise in biomedical fields due to its excellent sequence programmability, molecular recognition ability and biocompatibility. Hybridization chain reaction (HCR) is a simple and efficient isothermal enzyme-free amplification strategy of DNA, generating nicked double helices with repeated units. Through the design of HCR hairpins, multiple nanomaterials with desired functions are assembled by DNA, exhibiting great potential in biomedical applications. Herein, the recent progress of HCR-based DNA nanomaterials for biosensing, bioimaging and therapeutics are summarized. Representative works are exemplified to demonstrate how HCR-based DNA nanomaterials are designed and constructed. The challenges and prospects of the development of HCR-based DNA nanomaterials are discussed. We envision that rationally designing HCR-based DNA nanomaterials will facilitate the development of biomedical applications.