Intracellular dynamic assembly of
DNA structures may be beneficial for the development of multifunctional nanoplatforms for the regulation of cell behaviors, providing new strategies for disease diagnosis and intervention. Herein, we propose the dynamic assembly of
DNA coacervates in living cells triggered by miRNA-21 and K+, which can be used for both
miRNA imaging and mitochondrial intervention. The rationale is that miRNA-21 can trigger the hybridization chain reaction to generate G-quadruplex precursors, and K+ can mediate the assembly of G-quadruplex-based coacervates, allowing the colorimetric detection of miRNA-21 ranging from 10 pM to 10 μM. Moreover, the as-formed
DNA coacervates can specifically target mitochondria in MCF-7
breast cancer cells using the MCF-7 cell membrane as delivery carriers, which further act as an anionic shielding to inhibit communication between mitochondria and environments, with a significant inhibitory effect on
ATP production and cellular migration behaviors. This work provides an ideal multifunctional nanoplatform for rationally interfering with cellular metabolism and migration behaviors through the dynamic assembly of
DNA coacervates mediated by endogenous molecules, which has a large number of potential applications in the biomedical field, especially
theranostics for
cancer metastasis.