Constructing Controllable Logic Circuits Based on DNAzyme Activity

• Main Authors: Fengjie Yang, Yuan Liu, Bin Wang, Changjun Zhou, Qiang Zhang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-11-01
• Series: Molecules
• Subjects: dnazyme activity; hairpin dna; logic circuits; leakage
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/24/22/4134

Recently, DNA molecules have been widely used to construct advanced logic devices due to their unique properties, such as a simple structure and predictable behavior. In fact, there are still many challenges in the process of building logic circuits. Among them, the scalability of the logic circuit and the elimination of the crosstalk of the cascade circuit have become the focus of research. Inspired by biological allosteric regulation, we developed a controllable molecular logic circuit strategy based on the activity of DNAzyme. The E6 DNAzyme sequence was temporarily blocked by hairpin DNA and activated under appropriate input trigger conditions. Using a substrate with ribonucleobase (rA) modification as the detection strand, a series of binary basic logic gates (YES, AND, and INHIBIT) were implemented on the computational component platform. At the same time, we demonstrate a parallel demultiplexer and two multi-level cascade circuits (YES-YES and YES-Three input AND (YES-TAND)). In addition, the leakage of the cascade process was reduced by exploring factors such as concentration and DNA structure. The proposed DNAzyme activity regulation strategy provides great potential for the expansion of logic circuits in the future.