Development of An Integrated Peptide for Gene Delivery

To achieve an efficient delivery of therapeutics to physiological targets, the design and/or discovery of effective delivery vehicles play an important role. Polymer-based carriers have been intensively investigated and shown potential clinical applications due to their merits in safety including the avoidance of immunogenicity and the possibility of repeated administration. However, multi-step reaction and purification involved in the synthesis make the purity and fidelity of materials the most challenging issues for large scale preparation of synthetic drug delivery materials. Besides, long-term toxicity and biocompatibility are also concerns for synthetic materials. Peptide-based vectors are gaining prominence in the field of precisely designed and controlled biomaterials. However, these peptide-based materials only occupy partial functions compared to a fully functional drug delivery carrier which is supposed to have drug loading capability and specific targeting. In order to address these challenges in the field of gene delivery, we developed a peptide for DNA delivery. Evaluation of the peptide-based carrier is presented in details, focusing on size and zeta potential of the peptide/DNA complex, blood stability, cytotoxicity and gene transfection efficiency on target cells.