Journal
BIOMATERIALS
Volume 32, Issue 31, Pages 7978-7987Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2011.07.011
Keywords
Quantum dots; beta-Cyclodextrin; siRNA delivery; Gene silencing; Real-time tracking
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [30770494, 20725103, 20831006, 20821001]
- Guangdong Provincial Natural Science Foundation [9351027501000003]
- National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) [2007CB815306]
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
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The functional quantum dots (QDs) were specifically designed to overcome barriers in siRNA delivery such as siRNA protection, cellular penetration, endosomal release, carrier unpacking, intracellular transport and gene silencing. In this paper, two L-arginine-functional-modified CdSe/ZnSe QDs were synthesized as siRNA carriers to silence HPV18 E6 gene in HeLa cells. Using such constructs, these QDs showed significantly low cellular cytotoxicity and good siRNA protection. Flow cytometric and confocal microscopic analyses confirmed that the QDs delivered siRNA into HeLa cells efficiently. Importantly, superior gene silencing efficiency was achieved as evaluated by Reverse Transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) and Western blotting and HeLa cells growth was inhibited in xCELLigence installation analysis and MIT assay when treated with QD-siRNA complexes. Interestingly, the QDs coated with beta-CD-L-Arg showed optimized property compared with those coated with L-Arg. Furthermore, these QDs complexes could also be used as nanocrystal probing agents, allowing real-time tracking and localization of QDs during delivery and transfection. The properties and capabilities of these QDs showed that amino acid-modified QDs could be used as useful siRNA carriers to effectively silence a target gene as well as fluorescence probes to analyze intracellular imaging in vivo. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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