Promising plasmid DNA vector based on APTES-modified silica nanoparticles

Tuck-yun Cheang^1,*, Bing Tang^1,*, An-wu Xu², Guang-qi Chang¹, Zuo-jun Hu¹, Wei-ling He¹, Zhou-hao Xing², Jian-bo Xu¹, Mian Wang¹, Shen-ming Wang^1
1Department of Vascular Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China; ²Division of Nanomaterials and Chemistry, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
 
*Both authors contributed equally to this work

Abstract: Nanoparticles have an enormous potential for development in biomedical applications, such as gene or drug delivery. We developed and characterized aminopropyltriethoxysilane-functionalized silicon dioxide nanoparticles (APTES-SiNPs) for gene therapy. Lipofectamine^® 2000, a commonly used agent, served as a contrast. We showed that APTES-SiNPs had a gene transfection efficiency almost equal to that of Lipofectamine 2000, but with lower cytotoxicity. Thus, these novel APTES-SiNPs can achieve highly efficient transfection of plasmid DNA, and to some extent reduce cytotoxicity, which might overcome the critical drawbacks in vivo of conventional carriers, such as viral vectors, organic polymers, and liposomes, and seem to be a promising nonviral gene therapy vector.

Keywords: aminopropyltriethoxysilane, silicon dioxide nanoparticles, Lipofectamine^® 2000, gene therapy vector, nanomedicine