Chiral Semiconductor Nanoparticles for Site-Selective Photoinduced Cleavage of DNA Phosphodiester Bond

chiral cysteine (Cys)-modified cadmium telluride (CdTe) nanoparticles (NPs) are shown to specifically recognize double-stranded DNA exceeding 90 base pairs and to selectively cut upon photonic excitation at the restriction site GAT¢ATC (¢ indicates the cleavage site). Notably, our results demonstrate that cleavage activity originates from photoinduced reactive oxygen species. This site-specific cleavage is attributed to the affinity between the Cys-modified CdTe and the specific DNA conformation proved by quantum chemically calculated interaction energies. Remarkably, the photoactive chiral NPs developed here as sequence-specific endonucleases performed well in living cells and in <i>vivo</i>.