Synthesis and evaluation of L-arabinose-based cationic glycolipids as effective vectors for pDNA and siRNA in vitro

• Published in: PloS one 2017-07, Vol.12 (7), p.e0180276
• Main Authors: Li, Bo, Guo, Wanrong, Zhang, Fan, Liu, Meiyan, Wang, Shang, Liu, Zhonghua, Xiang, Shuanglin, Zeng, Youlin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alkanes; Ammonium; Arabinose; Arabinose - chemistry; Assaying; Atomic force microscopy; Biology and Life Sciences; Biomedical materials; Carbohydrates; Cations; Cell Line; Chemical engineering; Chemistry; Cytotoxicity; Deoxyribonucleic acid; Design; Developmental biology; DNA; DNA - genetics; Drug Carriers; Dynamical systems; Efficiency; Gene silencing; Gene therapy; Gene transfer; Genetic engineering; Glucose; Glycolipids; Glycolipids - administration & dosage; Humans; Hydrophobicity; In vitro methods and tests; In Vitro Techniques; L-Arabinose; Laboratories; Life sciences; Ligands; Light scattering; Lipids; Liposomes; Medicine and Health Sciences; Microscopy; Microscopy, Atomic Force; Peptides; Pharmaceutical sciences; Photon correlation spectroscopy; Plasmids; Proteins; Research and Analysis Methods; RNA, Small Interfering - administration & dosage; siRNA; Solubility; Synthesis; Toxicity; Transfection; Vectors (Biology)
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0180276

Glycolipids might become a new type of promising non-viral gene delivery systems because of their low cytotoxicity, structural diversity, controllable aqua- and lipo-solubility, appropriate density and distribution of positive charges, high transfer efficiency and potential targeting function. In this study, four kinds of L-arabinose-based cationic glycolipids (Ara-DiC12MA, Ara-DiC14MA, Ara-DiC16MA and Ara-DiC18MA) containing quaternary ammonium as hydrophilic headgroup and two alkane chains as hydrophobic domain were synthesized and characterized. They were observed to have strong affinities for plasmid DNA (pDNA) and siRNA, the pDNA can be completely condensed at N/P ratio less than 2, and the siRNA can be completely retarded at N/P ratio less than 3. The dynamic light scattering (DLS) experiment and atomic force microscopy (AFM) experiment demonstrated that cationic lipids and their lipoplexes possessed suitable particle sizes with near-spherical shape and proper ζ-potentials for cell transfection. The Ara-DiC16MA liposome was found to have good transfection efficacy in HEK293, PC-3 and Mat cells compared with other three kinds of liposomes, and also maintain low cytotoxicity and better uptake capability in vitro. Furthermore, the gene silencing assay showed that Ara-DiC14MA and Ara-DiC16MA liposomes have demonstrated effective delivery and higher gene knockdown activity (>80%) in the above mentioned cells than Lipofectamine 2000. These results indicated Ara-DiC16MA can be developed for efficient and low toxic gene delivery.