With their stability, high catalytic activity, ease of synthesis, functionalization and ease of modification, DNAzymes have attracted much attention in the fields of bioimaging, biosensing and cancer therapy.

DNA, a natural biological material, has become an ideal choice for biomedical applications, mainly owing to its good biocompatibility, ease of synthesis, modifiability, and especially programmability. In recent years, with the deepening of the understanding of the physical and chemical properties of DNA and the continuous advancement of DNA synthesis and modification technology, the biomedical applications based on DNA materials have been upgraded to version 2.0: through elaborate design and fabrication of smart-responsive DNA nanodevices, they can respond to external or internal physical or chemical stimuli so as to smartly perform certain specific functions. For tumor treatment, this advancement provides a new way to solve the problems of precise targeting, controllable release, and controllable elimination of drugs to a certain extent. Here, we review the progress of related fields over the past decade, and provide prospects for possible future development directions.

A DNA logic gate that integrate the recognition of multiple biomarkers with signal amplification was fabricated to achieve the accurate and sensitive analysis of circulating tumor cells (CTCs).

Here, we have developed a portable and partitioned DNA hydrogel chip to achieve high-throughput and point-of-care testing of multiple targets.

We associate endogenous and exogenous miRNAs to achieve a smart response and a coordinated drug delivery system.