Glycerol Monooleate-Based Nanocarriers for siRNA Delivery in Vitro

We present studies of the delivery of short interfering ribonucleic acid (siRNA) into a green fluorescent protein (GFP) expressing cell line, using lipid nanocarriers in cubic lyotropic liquid crystal form. These carriers are based on glycerol monooleate (GMO) and employ the use of varying concentrations of cationic siRNA binding lipids. The essential physicochemical parameters of the cationic lipid/GMO/siRNA complexes such as particle size, zeta otential, siRNA uptake stability, lyotropic mesophase behavior, cytotoxicity,and gene silencing efficiency were systematically assessed. We find that the lipid nanocarriers were effectively taken up by mammalian cells and that their siRNA payload was able to induce gene silencing in vitro. More importantly, it was found that the nonlamellar structure of some of the lipid nanocarrier formulations were more effective at gene silencing than their lamellar structured counterparts. The development of cationic lipid functionalized nonlamellar GMO-based nanostructured nanoparticles may lead to improved siRNA delivery vehicles.