Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39920144›Full record

ArticleNature communications2025

Synthetic transmembrane DNA receptors enable engineered sensing and actuation.

Ze-Rui Zhou, Man-Sha Wu, Zhenglin Yang, Yuting Wu, Weijie Guo, Da-Wei Li, Ruo-Can Qian, Yi Lu

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature communications, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
8citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

8 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Membrane-Associated Biomolecules for Synthetic Cell Signalling.Chembiochem : a European journal of chemical biology · 2026
    Review
  3. A nanoscale Jitterbug transformer from DNA.Nature communications · 2026
    Article
  4. Article
  5. Review
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Ze-Rui ZhouKey Laboratory for Advanced Materials. East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, P. R. China.
Man-Sha WuKey Laboratory for Advanced Materials. East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, P. R. China.
Zhenglin YangDepartment of Chemistry, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78712, USA.
Yuting WuDepartment of Chemistry, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78712, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3196-5916
Weijie GuoDepartment of Molecular Biosciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78712, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5694-2142
Da-Wei LiKey Laboratory for Advanced Materials. East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, P. R. China.
Ruo-Can QianKey Laboratory for Advanced Materials. East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, P. R. China. ruocanqian@ecust.edu.cn.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1039-9866
Yi LuDepartment of Chemistry, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78712, USA. yi.lu@utexas.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1221-6709

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China (National Science Foundation of China) 21977031Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission) 2018SHZDZX03Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission) 24DX1400200Shanghai Science and Technology Development Foundation (Shanghai Science and Technology Development Fund) 22ZR1416800Shanghai Science and Technology Development Foundation (Shanghai Science and Technology Development Fund) 23ZR1416100
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

In living organisms, cells synergistically couple cascade reaction pathways to achieve inter- and intracellular signal transduction by transmembrane protein receptors. The construction and assembly of synthetic receptor analogs that can mimic such biological processes is a central goal of synthetic biochemistry and bionanotechnology to endow receptors with user-defined signal transduction effects. However, designing artificial transmembrane receptors with the desired input, output, and performance parameters are challenging. Here we show that the dimerization of synthetic transmembrane DNA receptors executes a systematically engineered sensing and actuation cascade in response to external molecular signals. The synthetic DNA receptors are composed of three parts, including an extracellular signal reception part, a lipophilic transmembrane anchoring part, and an intracellular signal output part. Upon the input of external signals, the DNA receptors can form dimers on the cell surface triggered by configuration changes, leading to a series of downstream cascade events including communication between donor and recipient cells, gene transcription regulation, protein level control, and cell apoptosis. We believe this work establishes a flexible cell surface engineering strategy that is broadly applicable to implement sophisticated biological functions.

Indexed as

Cell MembraneDNAReceptors, ArtificialApoptosisHumansProtein EngineeringSignal TransductionSynthetic BiologyDNAReceptors, Artificial

Identifiers

PMID39920144
PMCPMC11806108

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.