Article: In vitro physicochemical evaluation of DNA nanoparticles Journal: International Journal of Nanotechnology (IJNT) 2011 Vol.8 No.8/9 pp.736 - 748 Abstract: We aim to characterise in vitro physiochemical behaviour of DNA nanoparticles that have been developed by our research group based on the biodegradable natural polymers with metal coordination. A polysaccharide, pullulan, was chosen as the vector of plasmid DNA. Diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid (DTPA) was chemically introduced to the hydroxyl groups of dextran to obtain pullulan-DTPA. When Zn2+ solution was added to the mixture of pullulan-DTPA and a plasmid DNA, DNA nanoparticles were formed. The conjugation of pullulan-DTPA with Zn2+ coordination decreased the apparent size of plasmid DNA. A negative zeta potential of plasmid DNA became almost 0 mV by the Zn2+-coordinated conjugation with the pullulan-DTPA. The stability of DNA nanoparticles formed through metal coordination depended on the percentage of chelate residues introduced, the mixing weight ratio of the plasmid DNA/DTPA residue used for conjugate preparation. We conclude that physicochemical characterisation of non-viral gene vectors is important to enhance gene expression whereas the use of plasmid DNA is not effective. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: In vitro physicochemical evaluation of DNA nanoparticles

Authors: Mohsen Hosseinkhani, Hossein Hosseinkhani, Yi-Ru Chen, Karthikeyan Subramani

Addresses: Department of Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY 10029, USA. ' Graduate Institute of Biomedical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei 10607, Taiwan. ' Department of Biomedical Engineering, National Yang Ming University, Taipei 112, Taiwan. ' Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology (INSAT), University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7ER, UK

Abstract: We aim to characterise in vitro physiochemical behaviour of DNA nanoparticles that have been developed by our research group based on the biodegradable natural polymers with metal coordination. A polysaccharide, pullulan, was chosen as the vector of plasmid DNA. Diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid (DTPA) was chemically introduced to the hydroxyl groups of dextran to obtain pullulan-DTPA. When Zn²⁺ solution was added to the mixture of pullulan-DTPA and a plasmid DNA, DNA nanoparticles were formed. The conjugation of pullulan-DTPA with Zn²⁺ coordination decreased the apparent size of plasmid DNA. A negative zeta potential of plasmid DNA became almost 0 mV by the Zn²⁺-coordinated conjugation with the pullulan-DTPA. The stability of DNA nanoparticles formed through metal coordination depended on the percentage of chelate residues introduced, the mixing weight ratio of the plasmid DNA/DTPA residue used for conjugate preparation. We conclude that physicochemical characterisation of non-viral gene vectors is important to enhance gene expression whereas the use of plasmid DNA is not effective.

Keywords: physicochemical evaluation; DNA nanoparticles; plasmid DNA; non-viral vector; drug delivery; nanotechnology; biodegradable natural polymers; metal coordination; polysaccharides; diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid; pullulan DTPA; gene expression.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNT.2011.041442

International Journal of Nanotechnology, 2011 Vol.8 No.8/9, pp.736 - 748

Published online: 22 Jul 2011 *

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Title: In vitro physicochemical evaluation of DNA nanoparticles

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