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Journal of Nanomaterials
Volume 2013 (2013), Article ID 384717, 11 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/384717
Bioreducible PEI-siRNA Nanocomplex for Liver Cancer Therapy: Transfection, Biodistribution, and Tumor Growth Inhibition In Vivo
1Department of Imaging, Tongji Hospital, Tongji University, Shanghai 200065, China
2Department of Nuclear Medicine, Shanghai Seventh People’s Hospital, Shanghai 200137, China
3Translational Medicine Research Centre and Central Laboratory, Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai 200040, China
4The Institute for Advanced Materials and Nano Biomedicine, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
5School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Received 21 May 2012; Revised 11 December 2012; Accepted 11 December 2012
Academic Editor: Takuya Tsuzuki
Copyright © 2013 Wei Xia et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
A bioreducible polyethylenimine (SS-PEI) was successfully applied as a nonviral carrier for the delivery of plasmid DNA and VEGF-siRNA in vitro and in vivo. The SS-PEI could strongly condense DNA or siRNA into nanosized complexes (below 200 nm) with positive surface charges. In vitro transfection experiments using GFP plasmid as gene reporter showed that the complexes of SS-PEI/DNA were able to efficiently transfect HepG2 cells, with efficiency comparable to that of polyethylenimine, a gold standard for nonviral gene delivery. Moreover, the complexes of SS-PEI/VEGF-siRNA could lead to reduced levels of VEGF protein in HepG2 cells in vitro. Treatment with the complexes of SS-PEI/VEGF-siRNA efficiently inhibited HepG2 tumor growth in an xenograft mouse model. The data of this study imply that the SS-PEI is a potent nucleic acid carrier applicable for liver cancer gene therapy.