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Updated: Sep 1, 2025

Synthesis, Functionalization, and Characterization of Fusogenic Porous Silicon Nanoparticles for Oligonucleotide Delivery
Published on: April 16, 2019
Fusogenic peptide modification to enhance gene delivery by peptide-DNA nano-coassemblies
Ruilu Feng1, Rong Ni1,2, Ying Chau1
1Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong. keychau@ust.hk.
Abstract:
Endosomal escape is a major obstacle for non-viral nucleic acids delivery. Here, we attached by click reaction a fusogenic peptide (L17E) onto peptide self-assembled disks (∼17 nm), which mimicked the functional subunits of the virus capsid. These peptide disks then spontaneously co-assembled with DNA to form patterned nanostructures (∼100 nm) as viral mimics. This modification did not affect the cellular uptake but enhanced endosomal escape and led to improved transfection in cell culture.

