Studies on bioadhesive PLGA nanoparticles: A promising gene delivery system for efficient gene therapy to lung cancer

The study aimed to design novel bioadhesive PLGA nanoparticles for efficient gene delivery to lung cancer cells. The bioadhesive agent and stabilizer, Carbopol 940 was chosen to establish bioadhesive PLGA nanoparticles and Pluronic F68, Pluronic F127 stabilized PLGA nanoparticles were formulated as control. The effects of different surfactants on the physicochemical and biological characterizations of PLGA nanoparticles were compared. All the obtained nanoparticles showed negative surface charge, similar spherical morphology, a relatively narrow particle size distribution, and lower cytotoxicity to A549 cells comparing with Lipofectamine 2000. Carbopol stabilized nanoparticles hold advantages in DNA-binding efficiency (>80%) at an optimal Carbopol concentration, DNA protection from enzymatic degradation in vitro release and better buffering capacity. Most importantly, higher transfection efficiency in A549 cells was observed comparing to Pluronics stabilized nanoparticles or naked DNA, similar to that of Lipofectamine 2000. These results revealed that the bioadhesive PLGA nanoparticles formulated with Carbopol might be a very attractive candidate as a non-viral vector for lung cancer gene therapy and might alleviate the drawbacks of the conventional cationic vectors/DNA complexes for gene delivery in vivo.