Cationic lipid-coated gold nanoparticles as efficient and non-cytotoxic intracellular siRNA delivery vehicles
Won Ho Kong1, Ki Hyun Bae, Sung Duk Jo
1Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Nanoscience & Technology Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology, Daejeon, 305-701, South Korea. whkong@postech.ac.kr
Purpose:
Cationic lipid-coated gold nanoparticles were developed for efficient intracellular delivery of therapeutic siRNA.
Methods:
Particle formation was characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and dynamic light scattering analysis. Cellular uptake, gene silencing effect, and cytotoxicity were investigated in multiple human cancer cell lines.
Results:
Nanoparticles had a spherical nanostructure with highly cationic surface charge and could form stable nanosized polyelectrolyte complexes with siRNA via electrostatic interactions; complexes exhibited efficient intracellular uptake and significant gene silencing effect with markedly low cytotoxicity compared to the widely used polycationic carrier, linear polyethyleneimine.
Conclusions:
We demonstrated that cationic lipid-coated gold nanoparticles could be widely utilized as efficient and safe siRNA nanocarriers for diverse therapeutic and diagnostic applications.
