Herein, N -acetyl- l -leucine-modified polyethylenimine was successfully constructed through the EDC/NHS-mediated coupling reaction and employed as vectors to accomplish p53 gene delivery using HeLa (p53wt) and PC-3 cells (p53null) as models. Compared with PEI25K, the derivatives exhibited lower cytotoxicity, protein adsorption and hemolytic activity, together with satisfactory pDNA condensation capability and gene transfection efficiency. After p53 transfection, MTT analysis confirmed that the cell proliferation was inhibited. Flow cytometric analysis showed that the derivative-mediated p53 delivery could induce stronger early apoptosis than PEI25K and Lipofectamine 2000 . Further, PC-3 cells showed higher sensitivity to the exogenous p53 transfection than HeLa cells. The mechanism for inducing apoptosis was determined to be up-regulation of p53 expression at both mRNA and protein levels using RT-PCR and western blotting analysis. Expression level and activity analysis of caspase-3, -8 and -9, and mitochondrial membrane potential measurement revealed that p53 transfection mediated by these derivatives facilitated early apoptosis of tumor cells via a mitochondria-dependent apoptosis pathway. Thus, the derivatives showed potential as biocompatible carriers for realizing effective tumor gene therapy.
Zhao Yu,Pang Bo,Chen Jie,Xiao Lizhi,Liu Hou,Lian Wenhui,Sun Tianxia,Jiang Yingnan,Lin Quan
Doubly charged pH-responsive core/shell hydrogel nanoparticles with green fluorescence were prepared and were shown to be viable bioprobes for active targeting tumor tissue and imaging of cancer cells. Via emulsionfree copolymerization hydrogel nanoparticles as VANPs were prepared, the core of which was polystyrene (Ps) and the shell was comprised of strongly positive electrolyte (ar-vinylbenzyl)trimethylammonium (VBTAC) with weak negative electrolyte acrylic acid (AA). Through conventional amidation, the shell was conjugated with cell-specific folic acid (FA), denoted as VANPs-FA. Then, negatively charged sulfonated 9,10-distyrylanthracene derivatives (SDSA) based on aggregation induced emission (AIE), was binding tightly to positively charged VBTAC of VANPs-FA shell. The prepared double charged fluorescent core/shell hydrogel nanoparticles abbreviated as VANPs-FS, showed excitation/emission wavelengths at ~420/528 nm. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements were performed to determine the size and surficial zeta potential of VANPs-FS. Under proper ratio of VBTAC to AA, the VANPs-FS was stable (~ 64.63 nm, −20.2 mV) at high pH (> 7), started to aggregate (~ 683.0 nm, −3.2 mV) at pH around 6, and can redispers at low pH (< 5). The MTT analysis proved that VANPs-FS had good biocompatibility and low cytotoxicity. The targeting effectiveness of VANPs-FS was confirmed by confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM).
Detailed synthetic route of VANPs-FS (top) and schematic cancer tumor-target aggregation of pH-sensitive VANPs-FS with enhanced retention and rapid cancer cell imaging (bottom).