An efficient and low toxic human serum albumin conjugated polyethylenimine nano-sized complex for gene delivery

作者：Chen Jiin Long^*; Peng Ssu Wei; Ko Wei Hsu; Wu Ching Jan; Li Teung Wang; Yeh Ming Kung; Chiang Chiao Hsi

来源：Journal of Nanoparticle Research, 2014, 16(9): 2593.

DOI：10.1007/s11051-014-2593-x

• Plasmid
• Transfection reagent
• PEI
• Nano-sized particle
• HSA-conjugated PEI
• Nanomedicine

A novel low cytotoxicity and high efficiency transfection reagent, human serum albumin (HSA)-conjugated polyethylenimine (PEI) was prepared to improve the effect of PEI on gene transfection in this study. Transfecting a cell with DNA is a crucial step for DNA vaccination or gene therapy. PEI, a non-viral vector, is one of the popularly used cationic polymers because of its intensive positive charge that condenses DNA as a nano-sized complex, and attaches on the negative-charged cell membrane, triggering cell endocytosis. In this study, we used a zero-length cross-linkage EDC system to chemically conjugate HSA and PEI, and the size of final synthesized product HSA-conjugated PEI (HSA-PEI) was 14 nm with a positive zeta potential 20.8 mV. We also evaluated the characteristics of HSA-PEI in cells. We chose the A549 cell line as our evaluation model because of its GP-60 receptor. Our results showed that HSA-conjugated PEI was easily applied to form a nano-sized complex with plasmid DNA (pDNA) by simply mixing. The functional ligand, HSA, has a large size, much free PEI (or equivalent free PEI effect) and increases the protection of pDNA by stereo-barring, good condensation effect. HSA-PEI also showed good pDNA transfection enhancement in A549 cell lines, and low toxic characteristics.

• 出版日期2014-8-12