สมาวดี เปลี่ยนวงษ์. Development of determination method and formulation of polyplex for nucleic acid delivery. Doctoral Degree(Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Natural Products). Central Library of Silpakorn University. : , 2015.
Development of determination method and formulation of polyplex for nucleic acid delivery
Abstract:
In this study, a new method for estimation of polyplex formation and carrier system for siRNA delivery was developed. The dye adsorption method was developed for the estimation of cationic polymer i.e. polyethylenimine (PEI) and chitosan (CS) to nucleic acid ratio at which the polyplex was completely formed. The assay relied on the attraction of dichlorofluoresceinate dye to adsorb on self-assembling particles as induced by the positive surface charge of the polyplex as cationic polymer associated equivalently with nucleic acid. This phenomenon resulted in the appearance of pink colored pellets of the polyplex after centrifugation. By the other means, sodium hydroxide solution was added to free the adsorbed dye into the solution, producing green fluorescence solution under UV light (366 nm). This method was well applied to the polyplex formulations of polymers and plasmid DNA or siRNA and gave the results in agreement with those from gel retardation method and zeta potential analysis. The proposed method was a fast, facile, cost-effective and safely, suited for the investigation of the optimal polymer to nucleic acid ratio for gene delivery. The new cationic polymer system was also developed for delivering siRNA. For the development of carrier system for siRNA delivery, CS combined with PLA was formulated and evaluated its performance regarding the delivery of siRNA to HeLa cells expressing enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP). The combination of CS and PLA could reduce the amounts of the polymers required for the complete complexation with siRNA, as compared with the single polymer using. Thereby forming positively charged, nanosized CS/PLA/siRNA polyplex was formed at the weight ratio of 5/0.5/1. The gene silencing efficiency of CS/PLA/siRNA at the optimal weight ratio of 5/0.5/1 satisfactorily silenced the endogenous EGFP gene at pH 7.4 as well as at pH 6.4 without deterrent effect from serum. In contrast, the transfection efficiency of CS/siRNA and PLA/siRNA was very low at physiological pH (7.4). The combined polymers could protect siRNA from RNase degradation over a period of at least 6 hr. Furthermore, MTT assay demonstrated that CS/PLA/siRNA complexes showed acceptably low cytotoxicity with 75 % cell viability. The uptake mechanism study showed CS/PLA/siRNA internalized into cell via clathrin-mediated endocytosis, caveolae-mediated endocytosis and enhanced transfection efficiency by facilitating acidification of endosome-lysosome system. Therefore, CS combined with PLA is easy-to-prepare, safe and promising for use as an efficient siRNA delivery vehicle.