With the development of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) nanotechnology, various DNA nanostructures and DNA devices have been constructed, which exhibit potential applications in material science and biomedicine. Taking advantage of the programmability and biocompatibility of DNA, novel building block to chemically functionalize DNA with hydrophobic organic molecules has attracted more and more attention. Driving by amphiphilicity, DNA‐organic molecular amphiphiles have been demonstrated to self‐assemble or further induce hierarchically assemblies, providing novel‐specific properties. In this minireview, we summarize the recent progress of DNA organic molecular amphiphiles including their synthesis, self‐assembly behavior in aqueous solution, and the amphiphilic self‐assembly based on hierarchical DNA nano‐structures. We further briefly discuss the perspective of the application of the DNA‐organic molecular amphiphiles.

Due to the addressability and programmability, DNA has been applied not merely in constructing static elegant nanostructures such as two dimensional and three dimensional DNA nanostructures but also in designing dynamic nanodevices. Moreover, DNA could combine with hydrophobic organic molecules to be a new amphiphilic building block and then self-assemble into nanomaterials. Of particular note, a recent state-of-the-art research has turned our attention to the amphiphilic DNA organic hybrids including small molecule modified DNA (lipid-DNA, fluorescent molecule-DNA, etc.), DNA block copolymers, and DNA-dendron hybrids. This review focuses mainly on the development of their self-assembly behavior and their potential application in nanomaterial and biomedicine. The potential challenges regarding of the amphiphilic DNA organic hybrids are also briefly discussed, aiming to advance their practical applications in nanoscience and biomedicine.

A new supramolecular host–guest strategy is developed to reversibly control the morphology of DNA–perylenebisdiimide assemblies in aqueous solution.

Amantadine (AMA) and its derivatives are illicit veterinary drugs that are hard to detect at very low concentrations. Developing a fast, simple and highly sensitive method for the detection of AMA is highly in demand. Here, we designed an anthracyclic compound (ABAM) that binds to a cucurbit[7]uril (CB[7]) host with a high association constant of up to 8.7 × 10⁸ M⁻¹. The host-guest complex was then used as a fluorescent probe for the detection of AMA. Competition by AMA for occupying the cavity of CB[7] allows ABAM to release from the CB[7]-ABAM complex, causing significant fluorescence quenching of ABAM (indicator displacement assay, IDA). The linear range of the method is from 0.000188 to 0.375 μg/mL, and the detection limit can be as low as 6.5 × 10⁻⁵ μg/mL (0.35 nM). Most importantly, due to the high binding affinity between CB[7] and ABAM, this fluorescence host-guest system shows great anti-interference capacity. Thus, we are able to accurately determine the concentration of AMA in various samples, including pharmaceutical formulations.