In vivo tumor transfection mediated by polyplexes based on biodegradable poly(DMAEA)-phosphazene

In recent years, increasing interest is being paid to the design of transfectants based on non-toxic and biodegradable polymers for gene therapy purposes. We recently reported on a novel, biodegradable polymer, poly(2-dimethylamino ethylamino)phosphazene (p(DMAEA)-ppz) for use in non-viral gene delivery. In this study, the biodistribution and in vivo transfection efficiency of polyplexes composed of plasmid DNA and p(DMAEA)-ppz were investigated after intravenous administration in tumor bearing mice. Data were compared with those of polyplexes based on the non-biodegradable polyethylenimine (PEI 22kDa). Both polyplex systems were rapidly cleared from the circulation (< 7% ID, at 60 min after administration) and showed considerable disposition in the liver and the lung, all in line with earlier work on cationic polyplex systems. The lung disposition is attributed to aggregates formed by interaction of the polyplexes with blood constituents. Redistribution of the polyplexes from the lung was observed for both polyplex formulations. Importantly, both polyplex systems showed a substantial tumor accumulation of 5% and 8% ID/g for p(DMAEA)-ppz and PE122 polyplexes, respectively, at 240 min after administration. The tumor disposition of the p(DMAEA)-ppz and PE122 polyplexes was associated with considerable expression levels of the reporter gene. In contrast to PE122 polyplexes, p(DMAEA)-ppz polyplexes did not display substantial gene expression in the lung or other organs (organ gene expression < 1/100 of tumor gene expression). The observed preferential tumor gene expression mediated by the p(DMAEA)-ppz polyplexes enables the application of this polymer to deliver therapeutic genes to tumors. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.