Abstract
Mesoporous silica nanoparticles have been synthesized and functionalized with four different types of molecules containing amino groups, i.e., with primary amines only, with quaternary amines, with quaternized cyclic amines, or with polyethylenimine (PEI), which is formed by primary, secondary, and tertiary amines. These nanoparticles were then incubated with reporter plasmids and the ability of the resulting complexes to transfect human cells was studied. Only nanoparticles functionalized with PEI were efficient for transfection. The agglomeration behavior and the electrokinetic potential of the nanoparticle–plasmid complexes have been studied, as well as their cell internalization behavior using a fluorescent-labeled plasmid that allows its monitorization by confocal microscopy. The results indicate that the efficiency of PEI-functionalized nanoparticles for transfection resides to some extent in the different characteristics imparted to the nanoparticles regarding agglomeration and surface charge behavior.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by grants MAT2009-14695-C04-02 from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, grants from Fundación Mutua Madrileña to NV, and from Fundación Ramón Areces to MA. VC is the recipient of a predoctoral award from Comunidad de Madrid. MA acknowledges the support from the 2006 Ramón y Cajal program (order ECI/158/2005). NV and FM-S are supported by program I3SNS and Sara Borrell, respectively, from Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias. We thank Laura Saldaña (CIBER-BBN and Hospital Universitario la Paz-IdiPAZ) for helpful suggestions and excellent technical support.
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Cebrián, V., Yagüe, C., Arruebo, M. et al. On the role of the colloidal stability of mesoporous silica nanoparticles as gene delivery vectors. J Nanopart Res 13, 4097–4108 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-011-0353-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-011-0353-8