Folic Acid-Decorated Polyamidoamine Dendrimer Mediates Selective Uptake and High Expression of Genes in Head and Neck Cancer Cells
Abstract
Aim: Folic acid (FA)-decorated polyamidoamine dendrimer G4 (G4-FA) was synthesized and studied for targeted delivery of genes to head and neck cancer cells expressing high levels of folate receptors (FRs). Methods: Cellular uptake, targeting specificity, cytocompatibility and transfection efficiency were evaluated. Results: G4-FA competes with free FA for the same binding site. G4-FA facilitates the cellular uptake of DNA plasmids in a FR-dependent manner and selectively delivers plasmids to FR-high cells, leading to enhanced gene expression. Conclusion: G4-FA is a suitable vector to deliver genes selectively to head and neck cancer cells. The fundamental understandings of G4-FA as a vector and its encouraging transfection results for head and neck cancer cells provided support for its further testing in vivo.
Recommended Citation
L. Xu et al., "Folic Acid-Decorated Polyamidoamine Dendrimer Mediates Selective Uptake and High Expression of Genes in Head and Neck Cancer Cells," Nanomedicine, vol. 11, no. 22, pp. 2959 - 2973, Future Medicine Ltd., Nov 2016.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.2217/nnm-2016-0244
Department(s)
Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
Keywords and Phrases
folate receptor targeting; gene therapy; head and neck squamous cell carcinoma; PAMAM dendrimer
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
1743-5889; 1748-6963
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2016 Future Medicine Ltd., All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Nov 2016
PubMed ID
27781559
Comments
This work was supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation (CAREER award CBET0954957), and National Institutes of Health (R01EY024072 and R01DE024381).