AUTHOR=Wang Yingying , Wang Baiyan , Xiao Yangfan , Cai Qingchun , Xing Junyue , Tang Hao , Li Ruiqin , Zhang Hongtao 

TITLE=Baicalin-modified polyethylenimine for miR-34a efficient and safe delivery

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology

VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/bioengineering-and-biotechnology/articles/10.3389/fbioe.2023.1290413

DOI=10.3389/fbioe.2023.1290413

ISSN=2296-4185

ABSTRACT=The success of gene therapy is inseparable from the development of safe and efficient gene carrier systems. The work provides a practical method to construct charge-regulated, hydrophobic modification, and functional polyethylenimine (PEI) with effective gene delivery and perfect transfection performance through condensation reaction, named BA-PEI. The carrier was shown to possess favorable compacted miRNA into positively charged nanoparticles with a hydrodynamic size around 100 nm. Additionally, BA-PEI possesses perfect degradability, which benefit the release of miR-34a from the complexes. Using the human lung cancer cell line A549 as a model, carrier/miR-34a transfection has been demonstrated to improve the expression level of the miR-34a gene by qPCR and western blotting. After the successful miR-34a gene delivery, the perfect antitumor ability of BA-PEI/miR-34a complex was systematic evaluation with suppressor tumor gene miR-34a systems in vitro and in vivo. In summary, the BA-PEI-mediated miR-34a gene transfection is advantageous over the commercial transfection reagent in safety and efficiency, therefore provides a new strategy to achieve miR-34a-based gene therapy.