Abstract
Specific and effective delivery of drugs and genes to cancer cells are the major issues in successful cancer treatment. Recently, targeted cancer gene therapy has been emerged as a main technology for the treatment of different types of cancers. Among various synthetic carriers, polyethylenimine is one of the most well-known polymers for gene delivery. In this study, we conjugated phage-derived peptide (DMPGTVLP) to polyethylenimine (10 kDa) via disulfide bonds for targeted gene delivery into breast adenocarcinoma cells (MCF-7). As negative-control cells, we used non-related hepatocellular carcinoma cells (HepG2). Peptide-conjugated polyplex exhibited low cytotoxicity and significantly increased the transfection efficiency in comparison with unmodified polyethylenimine. Therefore, the peptide-modified vector can be used as a good targeting agent for gene or drug delivery into breast adenocarcinoma cells.
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Acknowledgments
This work was funded by Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran. Additional financial support provided by the Iranian Nanotechnology Initiative is gratefully acknowledged. The results presented here were part of A. Mokhtarzadeh PhD thesis.
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Supplementary Figure 1
Characterization of the peptide conjugates by RP-HPLC. (1) Positive peptide (PP), (2) DTT, (3) PEI-PP, (4) DTT treated PEI-PP (JPEG 45 kb)
Supplementary Figure 2
FTIR analysis of PEI 10 and PEI 10-PP vectors (JPEG 46 kb)
Supplementary Figure 3
Transfection efficiency of polyplexes prepared from plasmid DNA encoding the green fluorescent protein (GFP) and PEI 10 kDa or the peptide-conjugated PEI 10 (JPEG 18 kb)
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Mokhtarzadeh, A., Parhiz, H., Hashemi, M. et al. Targeted Gene Delivery to MCF-7 Cells Using Peptide-Conjugated Polyethylenimine. AAPS PharmSciTech 16, 1025–1032 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1208/s12249-014-0208-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1208/s12249-014-0208-6