Improved gene transfer with histidine-functionalized mesoporous silica nanoparticles

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) were functionalized with aminopropyltriethoxysilane (MSN-NH2) then L-histidine (MSN-His) for pDNA delivery in cells and in vivo. The complexation of pDNA with MSN-NH2 and MSN-His was first studied with gel shift assay. pDNA complexed with MSN-His was better protected from DNase degradation than with MSN-NH2. An improvement of the transfection efficiency in cells was observed with MSN-His/pDNA compared to MSN-NH2/pDNA, which could be explained by a better internalization of MSN-His. The improvement of the transfection efficiency with MSN-His was also observed for gene transfer in Achilles tendons in vivo. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.