An efficient nonviral gene-delivery vector based on hyperbranched cationic glycogen derivatives

Cationic Starch Nanoparticles for Enhancing CpG Oligodeoxynucleotide-Mediated Antitumor Immunity

CpG ODNs demonstrate a significant promise for immunotherapy. However, their application is limited owing to quick DNase digestion and inadequate cellular internalization. Transportation of CpG ODNs into immune cells is crucial. Although viral vectors exhibit high transfection efficiency, safety risks, high cost, and low carrying capacity remain big obstacles. Herein, a novel CpG ODNs vector was fabricated by using starch. Starch was ultrasonicated and simply aminated (NH2-St) through grafting with diethylenetriamine, which was spherical with a diameter of 50 nm. NH2-St possessed good biocompatibility. Cationic NH2-St encapsulated CpG ODNs well and possessed a high loading capacity of 317 μg/mg. NH2-St protected CpG ODNs from nuclease digestion and significantly enhanced their cellular uptake. NH2-St/CpG induced the potent secretion of antitumor cytokines from macrophages and effectively suppressed the growth of tumor cells. This work highlights the promise of starch for CpG ODNs delivery, which brings new hope for cancer immunotherapy.

Advanced dendritic glucan-derived biomaterials: From molecular structure to versatile applications

There is considerable interest in the development of advanced biomaterials with improved or novel functionality for diversified applications. Dendritic glucans, such as phytoglycogen and glycogen, are abundant biomaterials with highly branched three-dimensional globular architectures, which endow them with unique structural and functional attributes, including small size, large specific surface area, high water solubility, low viscosity, high water retention, and the availability of numerous modifiable surface groups. Dendritic glucans can be synthesized by in vivo biocatalysis reactions using glucosyl-1-phosphate as a substrate, which can be obtained from plant, animal, or microbial sources. They can also be synthesized by in vitro methods using sucrose or starch as a substrate, which may be more suitable for large-scale industrial production. The large numbers of hydroxyl groups on the surfaces of dendritic glucan provide a platform for diverse derivatizations, including nonreducing end, hydroxyl functionalization, molecular degradation, and conjugation modifications. Due to their unique physicochemical and functional attributes, dendritic glucans have been widely applied in the food, pharmaceutical, biomedical, cosmetic, and chemical industries. For instance, they have been used as delivery systems, adsorbents, tissue engineering scaffolds, biosensors, and bioelectronic components. This article reviews progress in the design, synthesis, and application of dendritic glucans over the past several decades.

Controlling the Fine Structure of Glycogen-like Glucan by Rational Enzymatic Synthesis

Glycogen-like glucan (GnG), a hyperbranched glucose polymer, has been receiving increasing attention to generate synthetic polymers and nanoparticles. Importantly, different branching patterns strongly influence the functionality of GnG. To uncover ways of obtaining different GnG branching patterns, a series of GnG with radius from 22.03 to 27.06 nm were synthesized using sucrose phosphorylase, α-glucan phosphorylase (GP), and branching enzyme (BE). Adjusting the relative activity ratio of GP and BE (GP/BE) made the molecular weight (MW) distribution of intermediate GnG products follow two different paths. At a low GP/BE, the GnG developed from "small to large" during the synthetic process, with the MW increasing from 6.15 × 10⁶ to 1.21 × 10⁷ g/mol, and possessed a compact structure. By contrast, a high GP/BE caused the "large to small" model, with the MW reduction of GnG from 1.62 × 10⁷ to 1.21 × 10⁷ g/mol, and created a loose external structure. The higher GP activity promoted the elongation of external chains and restrained chain transfer by the BE to the inner zone of GnG, which would modulate the loose-tight structure of GnG. These findings provide new useful insights into the construction of structurally well-defined nanoparticles.

Ultrasound-Assisted Microencapsulation of Soybean Oil and Vitamin D Using Bare Glycogen Nanoparticles

Ultrasonically synthesized core-shell microcapsules can be made of synthetic polymers or natural biopolymers, such as proteins and polysaccharides, and have found applications in food, drug delivery and cosmetics. This study reports on the ultrasonic synthesis of microcapsules using unmodified (natural) and biodegradable glycogen nanoparticles derived from various sources, such as rabbit and bovine liver, oyster and sweet corn, for the encapsulation of soybean oil and vitamin D. Depending on their source, glycogen nanoparticles exhibited differences in size and 'bound' proteins. We optimized various synthetic parameters, such as ultrasonic power, time and concentration of glycogens and the oil phase to obtain stable core-shell microcapsules. Particularly, under ultrasound-induced emulsification conditions (sonication time 45 s and sonication power 160 W), native glycogens formed microcapsules with diameter between 0.3 μm and 8 μm. It was found that the size of glycogen as well as the protein component play an important role in stabilizing the Pickering emulsion and the microcapsules shell. This study highlights that native glycogen nanoparticles without any further tedious chemical modification steps can be successfully used for the encapsulation of nutrients.

Sustained delivery of MMP-9 siRNA via thermosensitive hydrogel accelerates diabetic wound healing

Excessive expression of matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) impedes healing of diabetic chronic wounds, thus wound dressing that could effectively inhibit the expression of MMP-9 offers significant clinical translation for diabetic wound healing. Herein, a hybrid hydrogel dressing was developed for localized and sustained delivery of MMP-9 siRNA (siMMP-9). siMMP-9 was complexed with Gly-TETA (GT), the GT/siMMP9 complex was then loaded into a thermosensitive hydrogel based on Pluronic F-127 (PF) and methylcellulose (MC). In vitro, this hybrid hydrogel dressing exhibited negligible cytotoxicity, prolonged the release of GT/siMMP-9 for up to 7 days, and significantly reduced MMP-9 expression. In vivo assessment in diabetic rats demonstrated that hydrogel provided localized and sustained delivery via the thermosensitive controlled release of entrapped GT/siMMP-9 into wound tissues for 7 days, resulting in dramatic MMP-9 silencing which significantly improved diabetic wound closure. This hybrid hydrogel dressing exhibited excellent biocompatibility, with no observed systemic toxicity in rats. Taken together, the hybrid hydrogel dressing may constitute an effective and biocompatible means of enhancing diabetic wound healing through effective silencing of the MMP-9 gene, and this hydrogel delivery system also offers a platform for in vivo delivery of siRNA for the treatment of other diseases.

A versatile endosome acidity-induced sheddable gene delivery system: increased tumor targeting and enhanced transfection efficiency

BACKGROUND

Polycation carriers show great foreground in the developing efficient and safe gene delivery; nevertheless, they are cytotoxic and unstable in vivo because of the excess cationic charge. PEGylation improves the biocompatibility and stability of polycation, whereas PEGylation restrains the endosomal escape to some extent.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

To address this issue and promote the transfection in vivo, a pH-sensitive conjugate folate-polyethylene glycol-carboxylated chitosan (shorten as FA-PEG-CCTS) was designed and coated on the surface of PEI/NLS/pDNA (PNDs), forming a versatile gene carrier FA-PEG-CCTS/PEI/NLS/pDNA (FPCPNDs). The novel carrier exhibited a few picturesque characteristics, including (i) neutral surface charge to restrain nonspecific interactions; (ii) folate receptors (FR)-mediated endocytosis to augment cellular uptake; (iii) dual proton sponge effect to realize endosome escape, and (iv) nuclear localization sequences (NLS) to enhance the transfection of pDNA.

RESULTS

FPCPNDs could compress and protect pDNA from degradation. FPCPNDs energetically targeted tumor cells because of their high binding affinity between FA and highly expressed FR on the tumor surface, accordingly enhancing the cellular uptake. In the acidic endosomes, FA-PEG-CCTS segment dissociated from PNDs. Then, PNDs realized endosomal escape through the proton sponge effect of PEI. Furthermore, FPCPNDs showed admirable transfection efficiency with the aid of NLS peptides. What's more, in vivo studies revealed that FPCPNDs had supreme antitumor activity among the whole preparations.

CONCLUSION

In vitro and in vivo assays thus demonstrate that FPCPNDs is a hopeful strategy for gene delivery.

Brain-Targeted Polymers for Gene Delivery in the Treatment of Brain Diseases

Gene therapies have become a promising strategy for treating neurological disorders, such as brain cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, with the help of molecular biology interpreting the underlying pathological mechanisms. Successful cellular manipulation against these diseases requires efficient delivery of nucleic acids into brain and further into specific neurons or cancer cells. Compared with viral vectors, non-viral polymeric carriers provide a safer and more flexible way of gene delivery, although suffering from significantly lower transfection efficiency. Researchers have been devoted to solving this defect, which is attributed to the multiple barriers existing for gene therapeutics in vivo, such as systemic degradation, blood-brain barrier, and endosome trapping. This review will be mainly focused on systemically administrated brain-targeted polymers developed so far, including PEI, dendrimers, and synthetic polymers with various functions. We will discuss in detail how they are designed to overcome these barriers and how they efficiently deliver therapeutic nucleic acids into targeted cells.

Aptamer-Dendrimer Bioconjugates for Targeted Delivery of miR-34a Expressing Plasmid and Antitumor Effects in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Cells

Metastasis and drug resistance are major barriers for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). To explore new therapeutic options, we successfully encapsulated MicroRNA-34a (miR-34a), a potent endogenous tumor suppressor in NSCLC into S6 aptamer-conjugated dendrimer to form lung cancer-targeted gene delivery nanoparticles (PAM-Ap/pMiR-34a NPs). PAM-Ap/pMiR-34a NPs had a diameter of 100-200 nm and Zeta potential of ~30 mV at applied N/P ratio. The aptamer conjugation significantly improved cellular uptake as well as gene transfection efficiency of PAM-Ap/pMiR-34a NPs in cultured NSCLC cells. We showed that PAM-Ap/pMiR-34a NPs enhanced the regulation of targeted genes, BCL-2 and p53 in vitro. In addition, we revealed PAM-Ap/pMiR-34a NPs significantly inhibited cell growth, migration, invasion and induced apoptosis of lung cancer cells compared with non-targeted NPs. The method provided a novel therapeutic strategy for the experimental treatment of NSCLC.

Efficient delivery of NF-κB siRNA to human retinal pigment epithelial cells with hyperbranched cationic polysaccharide derivative-based nanoparticles

A hyperbranched cationic polysaccharide derivative-mediated small interfering (si)RNA interference strategy was proposed to inhibit nuclear transcription factor-kappa B (NF-κB) activation in human retinal pigment epithelial (hRPE) cells for the gene therapy of diabetic retinopathy. Two hyperbranched cationic polysaccharide derivatives containing the same amount of cationic residues, but with different branching structures and molecular weights, including 3-(dimethylamino)-1-propylamine-conjugated glycogen (DMAPA-Glyp) and amylopectin (DMAPA-Amp) derivatives, were developed for the efficient delivery of NF-κB siRNA into hRPE cells. The DMAPA-Glyp derivative showed lower toxicity against hRPE cells. Furthermore, the DMAPA-Glyp derivative more readily condensed siRNA and then formed the nanoparticles attributed to its higher branching architecture when compared to the DMAPA-Amp derivative. Both DMAPA-Glyp/siRNA and DMAPA-Amp/siRNA nanoparticles were able to protect siRNA from degradation by nuclease in 25% fetal bovine serum. The particle sizes of the DMAPA-Glyp/siRNA nanoparticles (70–120 nm) were smaller than those of the DMAPA-Amp/siRNA nanoparticles (130–180 nm) due to the higher branching architecture and lower molecular weight of the DMAPA-Glyp derivative. In addition, the zeta potentials of the DMAPA-Glyp/siRNA nanoparticles were higher than those of the DMAPA-Glyp/siRNA nanoparticles. As a result, siRNA was much more efficiently transferred into hRPE cells using the DMAPA-Glyp/siRNA nanoparticles rather than the DMAPA-Amp/siRNA nanoparticles. This led to significantly high levels of suppression on the expression levels of NF-κB p65 messenger RNA and protein in the cells transfected with DMAPA-Glyp/siRNA nanoparticles. This work provides a potential approach to promote hyperbranched polysaccharide derivatives as nonviral siRNA vectors for the inhibition of NF-κB activation in hRPE cells.

Cross-linked polyethylenimine-tripolyphosphate nanoparticles for gene delivery

The high transfection efficiency of polyethylenimine (PEI) makes it an attractive potential nonviral genetic vector for gene delivery and therapy. However, the highly positive charge of PEI leads to cytotoxicity and limits its application. To reduce the cytotoxicity of PEI, we prepared anion-enriched nanoparticles that combined PEI with tripolyphosphate (TPP). We then characterized the PEI-TPP nanoparticles in terms of size, zeta potential, and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectra, and assessed their transfection efficiency, cytotoxicity, and ability to resist deoxyribonuclease (DNase) I digestion. The cellular uptake of PEI-TPP with phosphorylated internal ribosome entry site–enhanced green fluorescent protein C1 or FAM (fluorouracil, Adriamycin [doxorubicin] and mitomycin)-labeled small interfering ribonucleic acids (siRNAs) was monitored by fluorescence microscopy and confocal laser microscopy. The efficiency of transfected delivery of plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and siRNA in vitro was 1.11- to 4.20-fold higher with the PEI-TPP particles (7.6% cross-linked) than with the PEI, at all N:P ratios (nitrogen in PEI to phosphorus in DNA) tested. The cell viability of different cell lines was more than 90% at the chosen N:P ratios of PEI-TPP/DNA complexes. Moreover, PEI-TPP nanoparticles resisted digestion by DNase I for more than 2 hours. The time-dependent absorption experiment showed that 7.6% of cross-linked PEI-TPP particles were internalized by 293T cells within 1 hour. In summary, PEI-TPP nanoparticles effectively transfected cells while conferring little or no toxicity, and thus have potential application in gene delivery.