A rapid pathway toward a superb gene delivery system: programming structural and functional diversity into a supramolecular nanoparticle library

ACS Nano. 2010 Oct 26;4(10):6235-43. doi: 10.1021/nn101908e.

Abstract

Nanoparticles are regarded as promising transfection reagents for effective and safe delivery of nucleic acids into a specific type of cells or tissues providing an alternative manipulation/therapy strategy to viral gene delivery. However, the current process of searching novel delivery materials is limited due to conventional low-throughput and time-consuming multistep synthetic approaches. Additionally, conventional approaches are frequently accompanied with unpredictability and continual optimization refinements, impeding flexible generation of material diversity creating a major obstacle to achieving high transfection performance. Here we have demonstrated a rapid developmental pathway toward highly efficient gene delivery systems by leveraging the powers of a supramolecular synthetic approach and a custom-designed digital microreactor. Using the digital microreactor, broad structural/functional diversity can be programmed into a library of DNA-encapsulated supramolecular nanoparticles (DNA⊂SNPs) by systematically altering the mixing ratios of molecular building blocks and a DNA plasmid. In vitro transfection studies with DNA⊂SNPs library identified the DNA⊂SNPs with the highest gene transfection efficiency, which can be attributed to cooperative effects of structures and surface chemistry of DNA⊂SNPs. We envision such a rapid developmental pathway can be adopted for generating nanoparticle-based vectors for delivery of a variety of loads.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • DNA / metabolism
  • Drug Delivery Systems
  • Gene Library
  • Gene Transfer Techniques*
  • Genetic Therapy / methods*
  • Genetic Vectors*
  • Humans
  • Light
  • Mice
  • Nanoparticles / chemistry
  • Scattering, Radiation
  • Surface Properties
  • Transfection

Substances

  • DNA