Issue 7, 2018

Detailed investigation on how the protein corona modulates the physicochemical properties and gene delivery of polyethylenimine (PEI) polyplexes

Abstract

Given the various cationic polymers developed as non-viral gene delivery vectors, polyethylenimine (PEI) has been/is frequently used in in vitro transfection. However, the primary drawback limiting its in vivo applications is the sharp decrease in transfection efficiency in the presence of serum. Here, we investigated the influences of serum proteins or bovine serum albumin (BSA) on the physicochemical properties of PEI/DNA complexes (polyplexes), including hydrodynamic diameters and agglomeration behavior, zeta potentials, morphologies, and sensitivity to the presence of salt. Mechanism studies revealed that the protein corona determined the endocytic rates and pathways, intracellular transport, the rate of endo/lysosomal trafficking, vesicle escape efficiency, and thus the overall gene expression levels. This work offers mechanistic insights for the serum-induced suppression of transfection efficiency, which is the reduced endo/lysosomal escape of the protein-coated polyplexes, in contrast to the protein free polyplexes.

Graphical abstract: Detailed investigation on how the protein corona modulates the physicochemical properties and gene delivery of polyethylenimine (PEI) polyplexes

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
02 Feb 2018
Accepted
28 Mar 2018
First published
23 Apr 2018

Biomater. Sci., 2018,6, 1800-1817

Detailed investigation on how the protein corona modulates the physicochemical properties and gene delivery of polyethylenimine (PEI) polyplexes

D. Zhu, H. Yan, Z. Zhou, J. Tang, X. Liu, R. Hartmann, W. J. Parak, N. Feliu and Y. Shen, Biomater. Sci., 2018, 6, 1800 DOI: 10.1039/C8BM00128F

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