Next generation macrocyclic and acyclic cationic lipids for gene transfer: Synthesis and in vitro evaluation

Efficient delivery of Notch1 siRNA to SKOV3 cells by cationic cholesterol derivative-based liposome

A novel cationic cholesterol derivative-based small interfering RNA (siRNA) interference strategy was suggested to inhibit Notch1 activation in SKOV3 cells for the gene therapy of ovarian cancer. The cationic cholesterol derivative, N-(cholesterylhemisuccinoyl-amino-3-propyl)-N, N-dimethylamine (DMAPA-chems) liposome, was incubated with siRNA at different nitrogen-to-phosphate ratios to form stabilized, near-spherical siRNA/DMAPA-chems nanoparticles with sizes of 100–200 nm and zeta potentials of 40–50 mV. The siRNA/DMAPA-chems nanoparticles protected siRNA from nuclease degradation in 25% fetal bovine serum. The nanoparticles exhibited high cell uptake and Notch1 gene knockdown efficiency in SKOV3 cells at an nitrogen-to-phosphate ratio of 100 and an siRNA concentration of 50 nM. They also inhibited the growth and promoted the apoptosis of SKOV3 cells. These results may provide the potential for using cationic cholesterol derivatives as efficient nonviral siRNA carriers for the suppression of Notch1 activation in ovarian cancer cells.

Cationic lipids bearing succinic-based, acyclic and macrocyclic hydrophobic domains: Synthetic studies and in vitro gene transfer

In this communication we describe the construction of four succinic-based cationic lipids, their formulation with plasmid DNA (pDNA), and an evaluation of their in vitro gene delivery into Chinese hamster ovarian (CHO-K1) cells. The cationic lipids employed in this work possess either a dimethylamine or trimethylamine headgroup, and a macrocyclic or an acyclic hydrophobic domain composed of, or derived from two 16-atom, succinic-based acyl chains. The synthesized lipids and a co-lipid of neutral charge, either cholesterol or 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine (DOPE), were formulated in an overall 3:2 cationic-to-neutral lipid molar ratio, then complexed with plasmid DNA (pDNA). The relative transfection performance was evaluated via a comparison between matched versus mismatched formulations defined by the rigidity relationship between the lipids employed. Gel electrophoresis was used to characterize the binding of the lipid formulations with plasmid DNA and the relative degree of plasmid degradation using a DNase I degradation assay. Small angle X-ray diffraction (SAXD) was employed to characterize the packing morphology of the lipid-DNA complexes. In general, the succinic unit embedded within the hydrophobic domain of the cationic lipids was found to improve lipid hydration. The transfection assays revealed a general trend in which mismatched formulations that employed a rigid lipid combined with a non-rigid (or flexible) lipid, outperformed the matched formulations. The results from this work suggest that the design of the cationic lipid structure and the composition of the lipoplex formulation play key roles in governing the transfection performance of nonviral gene delivery agents.