Cellulose-based polyelectrolyte complex nanoparticles for DNA vaccine delivery

Abstract

Cellulose-based nanoparticles were prepared from oppositely charged carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and quaternized cellulose (QC) in an aqueous medium. The DNA complexing capacity of CMC–QC nanoparticles and the transfection efficiency of the DNA-loaded nanoparticles in COS-7 cells were first investigated using pEGFP-N1—a plasmid DNA encoding the enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP)—as a model, and then with a candidate DNA vaccine, pMASIA-tPAs-tE2.2, that has been developed against infection with bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV). The results revealed that CMC–QC nanoparticles could bind DNA efficiently, and the optimized DNA-loaded nanoparticles mediated very effective transfection in COS-7 cells, which was comparable to that achieved with Lipofectamine 2000. The novel CMC–QC nanoparticles show promise as a delivery system for DNA vaccines.