Copper(II)-Thymine Coordination Polymer Nanoribbons as Potential Oligonucleotide Nanocarriers

The direct reaction between copper nitrate, thymine-1-acetic acid, and 4,4'-bipyridine in water leads to the formation of a blue colloid comprising uniform crystalline nanoribbons (length > 1 mu m; width ca. 150-185 nm; diameter ca. 15-60 nm) of a coordination polymer. The polymer displays a thymine-based structure freely available for supra-molecular interactions. These nanostructures show significant selective interaction with single-stranded oligonucleotides based on adenine. Remarkably, they present low cell toxicity in three cell lines-despite the copper(II) content-and can be used as nanocarriers of oligonucleotides. These results suggest the potential of these types of nanostructures in several biological applications.