Short Interfering RNA Loaded Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles to Silencing Gene Expression Using the Luciferase Model

Short Interfering Ribonucleic acid (SiRNA) is a way to silence gene expression in cells that cause harm to the body. With our MSNPs (Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles), used for local drug delivery, we are able to deliver the SiRNA, through the proton sponge effect which allows our MSNPs to make their way into the cytoplasm of a cell, into the body and silence the gene expressions that are causing harm. The data we have collected shows that this technology is in fact silencing the luciferase we transfected into our cells and is worth looking further into. We chose to transfect our cells with luciferase because it was an easy and cost effect way of testing our SiRNA in a study. It is also useful in silencing gene expressions that cause cancer. In a separate study using the SiRNA, and Herceptin to target breast cancer cells, we were able to see that the tumor cells were being silenced.